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A psychometric evaluation of the BDI-II in treatment-seeking substance abusers

2001; Elsevier BV; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0740-5472(00)00169-0

1873-6483

Todd C. Buckley, Jefferson D. Parker, Jennifer Heggie,

Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was administered to 416 consecutive male admissions to a 28-day residential chemical dependence treatment program as part of a routine intake procedure. Psychometric analyses revealed that the BDI-II scores were internally consistent in this treatment-seeking population based on coefficient alpha. The mean BDI-II score for patients in this study was higher than that noted for other clinical samples in previous studies. The use of the BDI-II for clinical decision making with chemically dependent individuals is discussed in light of this elevated distribution of scores. Confirmatory factor-analytic examinations of the instrument revealed that a three-factor model, with cognitive, affective, and somatic symptoms loading as separate factors, provided the most adequate account of the data. In total, the study supported the use of the BDI-II for the assessment of depression in chemically dependent male patients entering a residential treatment program at a VAMC facility, provided population-specific normative data is utilized for making clinical decisions.