The RDSI is a self-report measure designed to quickly assess symptoms of depression in adults ages 18-89 years. The RDSI items assess the contemporary symptoms of depression specified by the DSM-IV™ for Major Depressive Disorder. Although the RDSI does not provide a formal DSM-IV diagnosis, clinicians can use the empirically derived cutoff scores to identify those individuals who may be at-risk for more serious, diagnostic forms of depression. The RDSI development sample consisted of 855 adults: 531 nonreferred community adults and 324 psychiatric outpatients, including 150 outpatients diagnosed with Major Depression. The RDSI Professional Manual provides normative data based on a sample of 450 nonreferred community adults.

Reliability/Validity

The RDSI is highly reliable and internally consistent with high alpha coefficients (.93 and .90 for the community and psychiatric outpatient samples, respectively). Test-retest reliability of the RDSI also is very high (r_tt = .94), suggesting that the RDSI is a useful measure in both clinical and research settings. Extensive validity information in the forms of criterion-related, construct, contrasted groups, factor analysis, and other procedures supports the RDSI as a valid measure of depression. The RDSI showed a high correlation (r = .93) with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale clinical interview for depression. Clinical validity was demonstrated by the strong diagnostic efficacy of the RDSI cutoff score, supporting the use of the RDSI in clinical practice.

Administration/Scoring

The RDSI Questionnaire booklet contains 19 items that measure the severity of contemporary depressive symptoms. Completing the booklet requires a 5th-grade reading level. Administration takes approximately 5-10 minutes, although additional time may be required by slow readers, elderly respondents, and individuals with severe psychomotor retardation. The RDSI booklet is easily hand-scored without the need for scoring keys or extensive computations.

The RDSI comes with a complete Professional Manual that describes the development, administration, and scoring. Also included are guidelines for interpretation, normative data, summaries of reliability and validity studies, and T-score conversion tables by gender.