Dimensions of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in clinically depressed outpatients

To ascertain the dimensions of the Beck Depression Inventory-it (BDI-II: Beck. Steer. & Brown, 1996) in clinically depressed outpatients, exploratory factor analyses were performed with the BDI-II responses of 210 adult (greater than or equal to 18 years) outpatients who were diagnosed with DSM-IV depressive disorders. Two factors representing Somatic-Affective and Cognitive dimensions were found whose compositions were comparable to those previously reported by Beck, Steer, and Brown (1996)for psychiatric outpatients in general. A subsequent confirmatory factor analysis supported a model in which the BDI-II reflected one underlying second-order dimension of self-reported depression composed of two first-order factors representing cognitive and noncognitive symptoms. The clinical utility of using subscales based on these two latter first-order symptom dimensions was discussed. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.