Use of the Children's Depression Rating Scale in an inpatient psychiatric population.

The Children's Depression Rating Scale is a useful and reliable instrument for measuring the severity of depression in children. The scale was initially used in a pediatric liaison population. This study reports its use in consecutive admissions to a child inpatient unit. Systematic evaluations of the children resulted in many diagnoses of depression which were missed by the clinical staff. Two relatively inexperienced raters did nearly as well as two raters who originated the scale, suggesting that the CDRS may have practical utility in many settings.