Measures and screening tests for depression in Thailand: A user’s guide

Abstract

Objective: To review the relevant literatures in measures and screening tests for depression in Thailand.

Method: The Ovid, Medline, Thai research database, Thai reference database for research and www.google.com were searched for literatures concerning measures and screening tests for depression by using the following keywords: assessment, screening, measurement, inventory, scale, questionnaire, depressive disorder, depression and Thai (in both Thai and English language).

Results: There were at least 17 measures for depression in Thailand. Most of them were translated from English version (12 measures), and five of them were created only in Thai language. There were 14 measures for screening depression, and 4 measures for symptom-severity. Regarding guide for selection a measure, the author presentsed important issues for consideration which were the goal of the assessment, target group, assessment method and properties of measures (validity and reliability).

Conclusion: At present, there are varieties of depression measures in Thailand, therefore the users should be rigorous in consideration about characteristic of their work and the properties of measures before choosing a measure. After that, the user will be able to choose an appropriate measure.

Key words: Measure, Screening test, Depression