Clinical evaluation of CES-D in neurosis

A survey of 141 (male 84, female 57) neurotics was carried out by using the center of epidemiological survey-depression scale, CES-D. The results showed that the depressive symptoms were very common and the prevalence of definite depressive symptoms was 85.8%. The mean of the total score based upon 20 items of CES-D was 2.7 times the mean of the total score in the Chinese normal population. The most common depressive symptoms were unhappy, low mood, sad and hollow feeling. In addition, the mean of the total score and certain individual item scores in depressive neurotics were higher than those in neurasthenia. It is suggested that CES-D may be useful to differentiate some subtypes of neurosis.