CES-D
ValidatedCenter for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)
AdultsSelf~5 min20 questions
Please read each question carefully, then circle one of the numbers to the right to indicate how you have felt or behaved during the past week, including today.
Report details · optional
Shown on the report and stored with the screening record. Use initials or a code, not full names.
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About this screener — evidence, source, alternatives
Twenty statements about mood, thinking, sleep, appetite and social experience over the past week, each rated by how many days it applied (0–3), giving a total of 0 to 60. Four positively worded items are reverse-scored. Developed by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health for general-population research and widely used as a case-finding screen. It does not ask about suicidal thoughts.
Evidence · validated
In a meta-analysis of 28 general-population and primary-care studies (10,617 participants), the standard cut-off of ≥ 16 had a pooled sensitivity of 0.87 and specificity of 0.70 for major depression; ≥ 20 gave sensitivity 0.83 and specificity 0.78 (Vilagut et al., PLoS One 2016;11:e0155431). AUC 0.87.
Free alternative to
- Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) · Pearson
Paid 21-item depression inventory; the CES-D is a free, public-domain symptom scale covering similar ground.
Source & licence
Radloff LS. The CES-D Scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement. 1977;1(3):385–401. Center for Epidemiologic Studies, U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
Licence: Public domain — developed at the U.S. NIMH; the North Carolina DHHS form states “Document is in the public domain. Duplicating this material for personal or group use is permissible.”
Official source ↗