Comparison of three depression rating scales.

We directly compared scores on the self-rated Beck Depression Inventory with two other common rating scales that assess a wider range of psychopathology, including depression, the self-rated Symptom Check List-90--R (SCL-90--R), and the clinician-rated Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for 71 inpatients who suffered from depression (n = 50) and other disorders. All measures of depression showed robust correlations among themselves. The self-rated scales correlated better between themselves than with the clinician-rated scale. Since the SCL-90--R assesses depression as well as the Beck inventories, is also a self-report instrument, yet provides a richer description of psychopathology with little extra effort, it may have some advantage over the latter.