Herreen D, Rice S, Zajac I. Brief assessment of male depression in clinical care: Validation of the Male Depression Risk Scale short form in a cross-sectional study of Australian men. BMJ Open. 2022 Mar 28;12(3):e053650. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053650.
Contact: Dr Ian Zajac
For this study, researchers developed and validated a short form of the Male Depression Risk Scale (MDRS-22) for use in primary care, examining associations with prototypic depression symptoms, psychological distress and suicidality.
Quantitative data were obtained through a survey comprising a range of validated measures, including the MDRS-22, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10).
Findings provide preliminary evidence of the potential utility of the MDRS-7 as a screening tool for externalised and male-type symptoms associated with major depression in men. Field trials of the MDRS-7 in primary care settings may facilitate identification of men at risk of suicide and psychological distress who do not meet cut-off scores for existing measures of major depression symptoms.