Can a One-Item Mood Scale Do the Trick? Predicting Relapse over 5.5-Years in Recurrent Depression

Authors: Gerard D. van Rijsbergen, Claudi L. H. Bockting, Matthias Berking, Maarten W. J. Koeter, Aart H. Schene

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046796

Abstract Summary

A simple Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAMS) successfully predicted depression relapse over 5.5 years in remitted patients. The self-rated scale performed comparably to clinical interviews, explaining 6.3% of relapse variance. This finding suggests sad mood after remission is crucial for depression’s course, and VAMS could enable easy, time-effective monitoring via email or SMS.

Why Brain? 🧠

A simple one-item mood scale predicts depression relapse as well as lengthy clinical interviews, offering an efficient tool for monitoring patients’ risk and enabling convenient daily tracking via email or text message.

License: CC BY.

The image is AI-generated for illustrative purposes only. Courtesy of Midjourney.