Table IV. Sensitivity and specificity of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) as a screen for depression. Using these cutoff scores, it was determined that 73% of persons with any depression had some form of affective disturbance (ie, high NA and low PA; high NA and high PA). Among persons with any depression with some form of affective disturbance, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 33% reported experiencing both low PA and high NA. Eighty-two click here percent of persons with major depression reported some affective disorder and 52% reported experiencing low PA and high NA (Table V). Table V. Cross-tabulations of positive affect (PA) and

negative affect (NA) responses among persons with any depression and major depression. In addition to being a moderately good identifier of depression, both PA and NA contributed to the prediction of

depression. Logistic regression analyses indicated that high NA and low PA (anhedonia) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are associated with risk of depression after 1 year (model X2=12.91, P=0.002). Low PA increases the odds of depression by 15% (Exp B=0.87, P=0.02) and high NA increases odds of depression by 38% (Exp B=1.38, F=0.01). Low PA and NA are also moderate indicators of treatment effect. When Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical PA, NA, and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression1“ were used to track changes among persons receiving Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical pharmacological treatment for depression. Changes in Hamilton scores were correlated with both changes in PA (r=-0.43, P=0.002) and changes in NA(r=0.40, P=0.004). Discussion Short measures of PA and NA can easily be utilized in the clinical setting. Subjects can complete them quickly and understand immediately the reasons for wishing to use them repeatedly. The above analyses demonstrate their concurrent validities and their moderately good predictive ability. PA

in particular assesses attributes not often included Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in typical assessment for psychopathology. to In particular, our findings indicate that the absence of PA is of equal importance to the presence of NA in identifying patients with clinically significant depression. We suggest that these brief parallel measures might be particularly useful when the course of illness is being followed over time and when increasing the prevalence of positive experiences is one of the explicit treatment goals. In conclusion, PA as well as NA are salient indicators of depression, and may tap into depression in older populations who may underreport depressive symptoms.8 PA and NA scales are a simple and conclusive way to measure affective states over time that may provide salient information regarding the ongoing course and prognosis of depression.