Efficient Screening for Depression in Epilepsy- A comparison of conventional and visual-analogue methods

Methods We enrolled 266 consecutive attendees with a confirmed diagnosis of epilepsy at a specialised neurological epilepsy service in London and compared verbal self-report and visual analogue screening methods for depression. These included two generic depression scales (HADS, BDI-II), one epilepsy-specific scale (NDDI-E) and the visual-analogue scale Revised Emotional Thermometers. We used DSM-IV criteria for major depression and ICD-10 criteria for depressive episode as the reference standard.