This is an academic presentation from June 2008, IPOS (Psycho-oncology) Conference, Madrid re simple screening questions for depression. It is primarily intended for clinicians and researchers working in this field. The main question addressed is can clinicians rely on one or two simple questions eg "have you lost interest in doing things" to detect people with clinical depression.

1. Are One or Two Verbal Questions Sufficient to
Detect Depression in Palliative Care?
An Updated Meta-Analysis of 17 Comparisons
Alex Mitchell Leicester Royal Infirmary
IPOS June 2008
IPOS June 2008

2. Background

3. Definition
Screening (pre-clinical patient)
Short; Easy; Few Missed Cases
Diagnosis (case-finding)
Accurate, Few false +ve or –ve
Rating (monitoring)
Linear, broad, patient rated?