Beck Depression Inventory questionnaire
A brief history
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a 21-item self reporting questionnaire for
evaluating the severity of depression in normal and psychiatric populations [1, 2].
Developed by Beck et al in 1961, it relied on the theory of negative cognitive
distortions as central to depression [3]. It underwent major revisions in 1978; the
BDI-IA and 1996; the BDI-II, both copyrighted [4]. The BDI-II does not rely on
any particular theory of depression and the questionnaire has been translated into
several languages. A shorter version of the questionnaire; the BDI Fast Screen for
Medical Patients (BDI-FS) is available for primary care use. That version
contains seven self-reported items each corresponding to a major depressive
symptom in the preceding two weeks.
Description
The questionnaire was developed from clinical observations of attitudes and
symptoms occurring frequently in depressed psychiatric patients and infrequently
in non-depressed psychiatric patients [5]. Twenty-one items were consolidated
from those observations and ranked 0-3 for severity. The questionnaire is
commonly self-administered although initially designed to be administered by
trained interviewers [3]. Self-administration takes 5-10 minutes. The recall period
for the BDI-II is 2 weeks for (major depressive symptoms) as operationalized in
the fourth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV).
