The clinical interview for depression. Development, reliability and validity.

This paper describes and summarises data on a symptom rating scale for assessment of depression and mixed neurotic disorders by a rater at interview. Items are rated on seven-point scales with defined anchor points. The scale has been found reliable in use by psychiatrists and non-medical raters. Validity has been shown in respect of correlations with other scales, sensitivity to change, utility to discriminate treatment effects, internal consistency of scoring systems and factorial structure. The scale is suitable for descriptive and classification studies, outcome studies and treatment trials.