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About The Beck Depression Inventory

The Beck Depression Inventory has been used in the mental health field to monitor and assess the symptoms of people with depression. Throughout its process of development and evolution, the BDI has remained a solidly reliable diagnostic tool for psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.

  1. Function

    • The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a questionnaire designed to assess the presence and severity of the symptoms of clinical depression. The BDI was originally used only with patients in mental health facilities, but now is also used in shorter form to measure and monitor depressive patients in primary care settings. The BDI can be administered by a health care professional, but is often given as a paper questionnaire to be completed by the patient.

    History

    • The BDI was originally developed in 1961 by renowned cognitive therapist Aaron T. Beck, current president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research. The original BDI was composed of 21 questions that measured the severity of depressive symptoms on a four-point scale, and items were written in the language in which depressive patients described their own symptoms. To obtain the symptom descriptions used on the test, Dr. Beck collected statements from his own patients, as well as the patients of his colleagues and students.

    Types

    • The BDI has evolved throughout the years since its development, and the first amendment to the BDI came in 1971. The BDI-IA changed the wordings for 15 questions on the inventory, and reduced the alternative wordings for the same symptoms. After thorough testing over a period of years, the BDI-IA was copyrighted in 1978. The BDI-IA was the definitive version until a major revision in 1996 that became the BDI-II. This second edition added items for symptoms including agitation, concentration, worthlessness and difficulty of daily living that were reflected in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th Edition). Test items on loss of weight, change of body image and somatic preoccupation were also dropped from this version of the test.

    Significance

    • The Beck Depression Inventory was the first diagnostic test for depression that used symptom descriptions given by patients to measure the presence and severity of depression symptoms. Extensively tested for reliability among depressed patients, the accuracy and effectiveness of the BDI as a diagnostic tool has remained solid throughout the years since its initial development.

    Theories

    • Psychoanalytic theories of depression as the expression of hostility against the self were popular at the time Dr. Beck developed the BDI, but Dr. Beck observed a negative view among his depressed patients of their present experiences, their possible future and themselves. The language of the test items and the items included on the BDI reflect this negative triad.

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