The Hospital and Anxiety Scale (HADS) is a widely used tool. It is designed as a measure of depression and anxiety for hospital, out-patient, and community settings. As well as being useful as a screening device, HADS can be repeated at weekly intervals to chart progress and is relatively unaffected by physical illness (www.scalesandmeasures.net/files/files/Hospital%20Anxiety%20and%20Depression%20Scale%20(1983).pdf).
The prime-MD two question screen with the addition of a help question has been shown to be effective by Arroll et al (2005) in general practice in New Zealand for screening for depression in the general population. Nineteen general practitioners in six clinics in New Zealand participated in the study which included 1025 consecutive patients receiving no psychotropic drugs. They concluded that adding a question inquiring if help is needed to the two screening questions for depression improves the specificity of a general practitioner diagnosis of depression (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16166106).
The prime-MD plus the help question is now included in eCHAT for lifestyle and mental health screening in primary care. eCHAT is a research-validated screening tool for the systematic screening of risky behaviours and mood problems that negatively impact on patients’ health and wellbeing (www.myhealthscreentrx.com/; www.annfammed.org/content/11/5/460.full.pdf).
