Information on beck depression test

What is Beck depression test and why is it used?

Beck depression test is a kind of psychological test, which has been used for the past 50 years at least in measuring the intensity of mental depression. It helps in defining the symptoms of clinical depression, and it can monitor changes over a period of time. It also helps when improvement needs to be measured and when the effectiveness of the treatment needs to be assessed.

The fact is that today practically everyone who suspects that they might suffer from clinical depression can take this test even online, although it is highly recommended to do it in presence of psychologist or a psychiatrist, because they are able to interpret the results in the right way. It consists of questions that test and measure the presence of specific symptoms, and it does not take more than ten minutes to go through them. Every question has four available answers, which are rated between 0 and 3. This scale is related to the intensity of the symptoms and 0 is given to the symptoms that are practically not severe, while 3 is assigned to those that are very severe. One part of the test is focused on emotional symptoms, while another is focused on the physical symptoms.

Advantages vs. disadvantages

As for the positive and negative sides of these tests, it is hard to say which dominate. Generally, good thing about this test is that anyone who is older than 13 can do this test because it is suitable for children at that age as well. These tests give an insight into the thoughts of an individual in an unbiased and neutral way, as well as their mental condition, thoughts, and personality, but on the other side, the fact is that those who do the test may exaggerate with their symptoms, which affects the results. Also, people who have a problem with admitting that they experience some of the symptoms may not be honest when answering, which will also affect the results. People may increase or decrease the results of the test on purpose as well, and it is not possible to determine whether or not the patient was honest and to what extent he was or was not honest. One more thing that should be taken into consideration when checking the results is that some symptoms that may be experienced are likely to be caused by some other condition instead of depression.