Research article

The Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS): a validation study

Anne Revah-Levy¹ , Boris Birmaher² , Isabelle Gasquet³ and Bruno Falissard³

¹  INSERM U669, Université Paris Sud 11, Centre Hospitalier V. Dupouy, 95107 Argenteuil, France

²  Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, USA

³  INSERM U669, Université Paris-sud 11, APHP, Villejuif, F-94804, France

author email corresponding author email

BMC Psychiatry 2007, 7:2doi:10.1186/1471-244X-7-2

Published:	12 January 2007

Abstract

Background

To examine the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS), a new measure was specifically designed to evaluate adolescent depression.

Methods

The 11-item clinician-report and 44-item self-report versions of the ADRS were developed from a qualitative phase involving interviews of experts and adolescents. These two instruments were then administered to 402 French speaking adolescents with and without depressive disorders. Item distribution, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity and factorial structure were assessed.

Results

After reduction procedures, a 10-item clinician version and a 10-item self-report version were obtained. The ADRS demonstrated good internal consistency (alpha Cronbach coefficient >.70). It also discriminated better between adolescents with and without depression than the Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-13).

Conclusion

The ADRS is a useful, short, clinician-report and self-report scale to evaluate adolescent depression. Further studies to replicate our findings and evaluate ADRS sensitivity to effects of treatment and psychometric properties in populations of adolescents with several psychiatric disorders are warranted.