Two-factor Approach To Depression
Depression can be thought of as having two components: the affective component (e.g. mood) and the physical or "somatic" component (e.g. loss of appetite). The BDI-II reflects this and can be separated into two subscales. The purpose of the subscales is to help determine the primary cause of a patient's depression.
The affective subscale contains eight items: pessimism, past failures, guilty feelings, punishment feelings, self-dislike, self-criticalness, suicidal thoughts or wishes, and worthlessness. The somatic subscale consists of the other thirteen items: sadness, loss of pleasure, crying, agitation, loss of interest, indecisiveness, loss of energy, change in sleep patterns, irritability, change in appetite, concentration difficulties, tiredness and/or fatigue, and loss of interest in sex. The two subscales were moderately correlated at 0.57, suggesting that the physical and psychological aspects of depression are related rather than totally distinct.
Read more about this topic: Beck Depression Inventory
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