A Collateral Source Version of the Geriatric Depression Rating Scale

One hundred ninety-four patients undergoing comprehensive geriatric assessment completed the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and their collateral source (CS) completed a CS version of the GDS (CS-GDS). The results were compared with the blind, prospective diagnoses made by geriatric psychiatrists. The CSs reported the presence of 28 of 30 symptoms significantly more often than the patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses showed good agreement among the clinical diagnoses and both the patient-completed GDS and the CS-completed CS-GDS. At cutoff scores used in prior studies of the GDS, the CS-GDS had limited specificity and poor positive predictive value.