How to Interpret a BDI Score

Created by Aaron T. Beck, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is one of the most heavily used tools for measuring depression and its severity. There are currently three versions of the BDI. The most recent was published in 1996. In the past, depression was described as inverted hostility against the self or in psychodynamic terms. The BDI uses patients' verbatim descriptions of symptoms and structures them into a scale that reflects the severity of given symptoms. The advent of the BDI represented a shift in the profession's view of depression from the Freudian psychodynamic perspective to being guided by the patient's own thoughts.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Paper
• Beck Depression Inventory

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Instructions

• 1

  Obtain a Beck Depression Inventory and complete the survey. The long form of the BDI consists of 21 questions with four possible responses for each. Each response is given a score that ranges from zero to three, indicating the severity of the symptom.

• 2

  Total the results. Add the scores from each question. For example, if for question number one your score was zero and for question number two your score was three, add zero plus three and continue to add each subsequent score until you have added all of the responses for a total.

• 3

  Interpret the results. The total score is compared to a key to determine the degree of depression. The accepted ranges are as follows: 0 to 9 indicates no depression, 10 to 18 indicates mild to moderate depression, 19 to 29 indicates moderate to severe depression and 30 to 63 indicates severe depression.