Geriatric Depression Scale GDS
Geriatric Depression Scale GDS overview
Creator and Context
The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is a yes or no screening measure of depression in older adults.
The original 30 item long form was developed by Brink, Yesavage and colleagues and published in 1982 and 1983. The 15 item short form was derived by Sheikh and Yesavage in 1986 from the items correlating most strongly with depressive symptoms.
The scale is in the public domain, because it was partly the result of federal support.
Presenting Conditions
The GDS measures depressive symptoms in a way designed for older adults. It deliberately avoids somatic items such as appetite and sleep, which are confounded by physical illness and normal ageing, and focuses instead on mood, outlook, energy, memory complaints and social withdrawal.
It is scored as a single total and has no subscales in routine use.
Administration
Self administered or read aloud. Each item is answered yes or no in relation to the past week. The 15 item short form takes about 5 to 7 minutes.
Desired Audience
Older adults, including those who are physically unwell or have mild to moderate cognitive impairment, across community, acute and long term care settings.
Depression in older adults is routinely missed, partly because general depression measures load on somatic symptoms that older people have anyway. The GDS was designed around that problem, and the binary yes or no format works for people who struggle with Likert scales.
Considerations
A screening measure, not a diagnostic instrument.
The 15 item short form does not assess suicidality. Risk must be asked separately.
Bands for the 30 item long form are less standardised than for the short form.
Validity degrades with more severe cognitive impairment.
How to score the Geriatric Depression Scale GDS
Conducting the assessment
The person answers each item yes or no for the past week. One point is scored for each answer indicating depression. Five items on the short form are reverse scored.
Interpretation
The short form scores 0 to 15 and the long form 0 to 30.
Short form (GDS-15):
0 to 4 normal, depending on age, education and complaints
5 to 8 mild
9 to 11 moderate
12 to 15 severe
A score above 5 is suggestive of depression and warrants comprehensive follow up. A score of 10 or above is almost always indicative of depression.
Long form (GDS-30): 0 to 9 normal, 10 to 19 mild depression, 20 to 30 severe depression.
Clinical Considerations
Treat a positive screen as a prompt for a full assessment, not a diagnosis.
Ask about suicidality separately. The short form does not cover it.
Consider cognition. Where cognitive impairment is significant, use collateral history alongside the score.
Geriatric Depression Scale GDS use cases
Screening for depression in older adults
Assessment in aged care, community and acute hospital settings
Monitoring change in depressive symptoms over time
Research in older adult mental health
Category
Depression
Research Summary
Yesavage, J. A., Brink, T. L., Rose, T. L., Lum, O., Huang, V., Adey, M. B., & Leirer, V. O. (1983). Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary report. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17(1), 37 to 49.
Brink, T. L., Yesavage, J. A., Lum, O., Heersema, P., Adey, M. B., & Rose, T. L. (1982). Screening tests for geriatric depression. Clinical Gerontologist, 1(1), 37 to 43.
Sheikh, J. I., & Yesavage, J. A. (1986). Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS): Recent evidence and development of a shorter version. In T. L. Brink (Ed.), Clinical Gerontology: A Guide to Assessment and Intervention (pp. 165 to 173). New York: Haworth Press.
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