Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version Post-Stroke Depression Scale: the Case of Neurology Outpatients in Rasht City, North of Iran

Background: psychiatrists use different scales to evaluate post-stroke depression; however, some concerns have raised about their low specificity. objectives: this study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the persian version of the post-stroke depression scale (psds) in iran. materials & methods: in this analytical cross-sectional study, 155 patients with stroke who were referred to neurology clinics in rasht city, iran, were interviewed by a psychiatric assistant (gold standard dsm-5 interview was used to separate the depressed from the non-depressed). the participants were then assessed by the psds and the hospital anxiety and depression scale (hads). moreover, a receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve with the standard gold dsm-5 interview was used to determine the ability of the scales and to categorize depression. eventually, the data were analyzed in spss v. 19. results: data analysis indicates that the factor structure of hads is one-dimensional, and exploratory and confirmatory analysis supported the fit for the one-factor model as the best fitting model. bartlett test (the chi-square=408.217, df=28, p<0.001) showed significant relationships between variables. the internal consistency of hads was 0.638 for depression and 0.617 for anxiety. the test-retest reliability is equal to for 60 subjects were randomly re-evaluated within one to two weeks, reported that r=0.783, for anxiety and r=0.741 for depression. finally, based on the roc curve, the cut-off point of 9 was chosen, and the different severity of depression was distinguished by 9, 14, and 20. conclusion: the persian version of psds possesses appropriate psychometric properties among the iranian population.