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. 2016 Oct 13:12:2649-2657.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S112069. eCollection 2016.

Use of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire for screening depression in head and neck cancer patients in Taiwan

Yu Lee  1 , Yi-Shan Wu  1 , Chih-Yen Chien  2 , Fu-Min Fang  3 , Chi-Fa Hung  1
Affiliations

Use of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire for screening depression in head and neck cancer patients in Taiwan

Yu Lee et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

Abstract

Objective: The purposes of this study are 1) to estimate the prevalence of common mental disorders including depressive disorder in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) at baseline and at the 6-month follow-up and 2) to test the validity of two self-reported questionnaires, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ), for screening depression in patients with HNC.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the outpatient collaborative care clinic for HNC of a tertiary hospital in Taiwan between January 2010 and January 2011. Ninety-three patients with HNC were enrolled and assessed using the HADS, TDQ, and Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, Patient edition, at baseline and at the 6-month follow-up. Conventional validity indices of the HADS and TDQ were examined.

Results: Our results showed that the validity of the TDQ was satisfactory and comparable to that of both the HADS depression subscale and the HADS total scale. The cutoff scores of the HADS and TDQ for screening possible depressive disorders were 8 and 15, respectively. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the HADS and TDQ were mean 0.975±0.015 and 0.966±0.019, respectively. Thirteen participants (14%) were diagnosed with depressive disorders at the 6-month follow-up, compared with 8.5% at baseline.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that both the HADS and TDQ are valid instruments for screening depression in patients with HNC.

Keywords: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire; head and neck cancer; prevalence; validity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Receiver operating characteristic curve and optimal cutoff score for the TDQ, the HADS-T, and the HADS-D among patients with head and neck cancer. Abbreviations: TDQ, Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; HADS-D, HADS depressive subscale; HADS-T, HADS total scale; ROC, receiver operating characteristic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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