A single question to detect depression

Researchers conducted a retrospective clinical audit to validate the diagnostic accuracy of a single question on the emotional quality of life as a measure of depression in symptomatic patients.

The findings are published in BJGP Open.

Author comment by Professor Bruce Arroll, Professor of General Practice and Primary Health Care at the University of Auckland:

"In general practice, we often see patients on the worst day of their lives or at least not the best day. They may be feeling unwell with a health problem or struggling with the issues of everyday life such as family, work and finances. These, too, can present as physical health issues such as poor sleep, fatigue and bodily aches and pains. We work in short time frames, allocating fifteen minutes to each patient, and frequently go over time according to patient need.

"I have long been interested in developing short tools for assessing low mood and has done validation work on two questions. As part of my talking therapy for patients with distress, I developed a score of zero to 100 for emotional quality of life, where 100 is perfect, and zero is the worst imaginable regarding how the person feels now.

"The original idea was to use it as a monitoring tool for my patients over a period of weeks to see if they were progressing, but I found that it was also a very good tool for assessing mood. I has done several validation studies showing that it is very specific, which means when a patient has a low score, e.g. ten or less, they are 25 times more likely to have a low mood than someone with a higher score. The advantage of this tool is that it takes 15 seconds to administer and does not require the patient to read any questionnaires. The research has found that a score of 60 or less is associated with a low mood. The flip side of this is that to flourish; we ideally need to feel 65 out of 100 or more.

"The best thing most humans can do when feeling a bit low is to exercise, catch up with a good friend and do something in their life that brings them pleasure. This is known professionally as behavioural activation. If that does not work, seek help by texting 1737 or contacting your GP."