Evaluation of symptoms of major depressive disorder. Self-report vs. clinician ratings.

The authors examine the relationship between self-reported and interviewer ratings of individual symptoms of major depressive disorder. The overall rate of agreement between the self-reported and clinician ratings was about 80% for 14 of the 18 symptoms, and the median Kappa for determining the presence or absence of the symptoms was .62. Disagreement was greatest for psychomotor disturbance, decreased concentration, and indecisiveness. The authors discuss how the unreliability of interviewer assessments limits the amount of agreement between self-reported and clinician ratings.