Factor study of the Geriatric Depression Scale.

A sample of 234 people between the ages of 60 and 95 was studied using the Brink-Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). The GDS has good concurrent validity with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression with the Melancholia Scale (r = 0.77), which confirms the clinical utility of this scale. A factor analysis of principal components with an oblimin rotation was performed. The results obtained imply that structural validation cannot be made in relation to Beck's cognitive model of depression. It can be concluded that the elimination of the somatic items does not add any theoretical correspondence with the model, as the factors tend to group the various items into one dimension.