Which is the most valid/validated scale for diagnosis of Major depression for an Indian population?
I am sharing my research here should anybody find it useful.

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Although PHQ-9 wasn’t developed for an Indian audience, it has been used by multiple
studies in India [1, 2, 3]. It has also been validated for an adolescent population, and a
score of was found to have high sensitivity (87.1%) and specificity (79.7%) [4]. A
modified version of PHQ-9, the PHQ-12, was developed and validated on a South Indian
population of 100 participants. PHQ-12 essentially tests the same symptoms as PHQ-9
but differs in number of questions, the specific wordings of the questions, and the
marking scheme. PHQ-12 lets the patient mark every question in a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. A
‘Yes’ is given a score of 1 and a ‘No’ a score of 0. A total score of &gt;4 according to this

marking scheme has shown the highest sensitivity (92.0%) and specificity (90.7%) when
compared against PHQ-9 [5].
Other popular scales for diagnosis of depression - Hamilton Depression Rating Scale,
Beck Depression Inventory, and Montogomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale - have
been adapted for an Indian population [6, 7, 8]. Brief Patient Health Questionnaire has
also been translated into 11 Indian languages and validated for an Indian population [9].
A novel scale, Amritsar Depressive Inventory (ADI), has been developed based on
symptoms which are more prevalent in Indian populations [10].


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