A T Beck — Page 10 | PubMed Health

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Use of the Beck Depression Inventory for Primary Care to screen for major depression disorders.

To ascertain how effective the Beck Depression Inventory for Primary Care (BDI-PC) was in screening for DSM-IV major depression disorders (MDD) in outpatients who were scheduled for routine office visits with physicians specializing in internal medicine, the BDI-PC was administered to 60 male and 60 female outpatients. The internal consistency of the BDI-PC was high (alpha 0.85), and the Mood Module from the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders was used to diagnose MDD. The BDI-PC scores were not significantly correlated with sex, age, ethnicity, or total number of medical diagnoses. A BDI-PC cutoff score of 4 and above yielded 98% maximum clinical efficiency with 97% (95% CI 82%-99%) sensitivity and 99% (95% CI 94%-99%) specificity rates, respectively, for identifying patients with and without MDD. The BDI-PC is discussed as an effective case-finding instrument for screening primary care patients for MDD.

Bayes Theorem↗

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A comparison of focused and standard cognitive therapy for panic disorder.

The relative efficacy of two psychotherapeutic approaches to panic disorder, namely, focused cognitive therapy (FCT) and standard cognitive therapy (SCT) was examined. FCT focused specifically on the "catastrophic misinterpretation" of physical and psychological sensations experienced during panic attacks induced in the office or occurring spontaneously between sessions. SCT focused primarily on the cognitions and beliefs relevant to interpersonal concerns involved in generalized anxiety. We hypothesized that FCT would be more effective than SCT since the latter did not include an induced panic exercise (exposure condition) specific to the patient's panicogenic cognitions. Forty patients diagnosed with panic disorder were randomly assigned to the SCT and FCT groups for approximately 12 to 18 sessions of treatment. Both groups reported significant decreases in the severity of the clinical measures at termination. Moreover, 89.5% of the SCT group and 84.2% of the FCT group were free of panic attacks at 1-year follow-up. Contrary to the predictions, the results for measures of panic attack frequency, anxiety, and depression did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups. Results suggest that in-office "exposure" is not necessary for improvement and that a primary focus on cognitions associated with generalized anxiety may be an effective intervention. However, since improvement in panic was correlated with normalizing of panic-related beliefs in both conditions, it is suggested that cognitive change may be a crucial ingredient of improvement in panic episodes.

Adult↗