@article{ref1,
title="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",
journal="BMJ open",
year="2022",
author="Herreen, Danielle and Rice, Simon and Zajac, Ian",
volume="12",
number="3",
pages="e053650-e053650",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate 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. <br><br>DESIGN: Cross-sectional study with 8-month follow-up. SETTING: Community-based. PARTICIPANTS: A community sample of younger (n=510; 18-64 years) and older (n=439; 65-93 years) men residing in Australia (M age=58.09 years, SD=17.77) participated in the study. A subset of respondents (n=159 younger men; n=169 older men) provided follow-up data approximately eight months later. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: 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). The MDRS-22 was refined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in line with best practice guidelines. Analysis of variance and generalised linear models were conducted to explore relationships between variables. <br><br>RESULTS: The short-form MDRS consisted of seven items (MDRS-7) and captured all of the domains in the original tool. Participants with mixed symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥ 10 and MDRS-7 > 5) had significantly higher risk of mental illness (K10 ≥ 25) and current suicidality (PHQ-9 item 9 ≥ 1) than those with exclusively prototypic symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥ 10 and MDRS-7 ≤ 5). Furthermore, the MDRS-7 was shown to be effective at predicting elevated symptoms of depression at follow-up, after controlling for previous depression diagnosis. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: 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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2044-6055",
doi="10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053650",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053650"
}