The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is a screening tool for identifying depressive symptoms in older adults. It is especially useful in clinical settings to facilitate assessment of depression in older adults, especially when baseline measurements are compared to subsequent scores.

The GDS may be used with healthy, medically ill, and mild to moderately cognitively impaired older adults. It has been extensively used in community, acute and long-term care settings. The GDS has been tested and used extensively with the older population and was found to have a 92% sensitivity and an 89% specificity when evaluated against diagnostic criteria. The validity and reliability of the tool have been supported through both clinical practice and research.

The brief, easy-to-use questionnaire contains 30 yes/no questions in reference to how the individual felt on the day of administration. Scores of 10-19 indicate mild depression and 21-30 indicate severe depression. The GDS takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to administer and requires no prior psychiatric knowledge.

Notes: by Jerome Yesavage, M.D.