Differential diagnostic potential of depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21)

Pozgajčić, Tea. (2016). Differential diagnostic potential of depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21). Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Jokić-Begić, Nataša].

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Abstract

Numerous studies have examined the psychometric properties of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) in non-clinical and clinical samples in different cultures. However, there is an obvious lack of research of potential differential diagnostic value of DASS-21. The aim of this study was to determine the possibility of the use of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) in the differential diagnostic purposes of distinguishing clinical groups within the clinical sample of adults in Croatia. Total of 99 adult participants were divided into five diagnostic groups, based on their existing diagnoses - participants with the schizophrenia spectrum disorders, participants with mood disorders, participants with anxiety disorders, participants with comorbid mood disorders and anxiety disorders and participants with comorbid personality disorders, mood disorders and anxiety disorders. The results suggest that DASS-21 can differentiate groups of people with various mental disorders. However, individual subscales of DASS-21 show different ability in differentiating diagnostic groups - the anxiety subscale shows the lowest ability to differentiate diagnostic groups. In the discussion, we examine in detail the direction of the obtained differences, consider possible implications stemming from present literature and debate on the course of future research.

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