Accuracy of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Depression subscale (HADS-D) to screen for major depression: systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis

Summary

Study to evaluate the accuracy of the depression subscale of the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale to screen for major depression among people with physical health problems. Individual participant data were obtained from 101 of 168 eligible studies. When screening for major depression, a HADS-D cut-off value of seven or higher maximised combined sensitivity and specificity, but was less sensistive and more specific. To identify medically ill patients with depression with the HADS-D, lower cut-off values could be used to avoid false negatives and higher cut-off values to reduce false positives and identify people with higher symptom levels.