The Clinical Interview for Depression: A Comprehensive Review of Studies and Clinimetric Properties

<i>Background:</i> A comprehensive assessment of the wide spectrum of depressive symptomatology, particularly in its subclinical forms, is lacking in standard rating scales. There is also an emerging need for instruments that can detect small differences in therapeutic studies and have good sensitivity. The purpose of this paper is to review the clinimetric characteristics of Paykel’s Clinical Interview for Depression (CID) and to examine the results of the studies in which the interview has been used. <i>Methods:</i> Published reports which involved the use of the CID were identified by searching the following electronic databases: Medline, PsychINFO, EMBASE, and Web of Science. A manual search of the literature was also performed. <i>Results:</i> The initial strategies yielded 169 published reports for potential inclusion in the review: 98 are discussed here. The CID has been used extensively in a variety of studies, including descriptive studies, classification by means of factor analysis and cluster analysis, and predictor variables of response to treatment or relapse. The CID has also been used as an outcome measure in several controlled clinical trials and follow-up studies of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy of affective disorders. It has been shown to be valid and reliable, to discriminate depressives from controls, or different subgroups of depressed patients, and to reflect changes during the course of treatment, particularly when individual symptoms are considered. <i>Conclusions:</i> Evidence from these studies highlights the utility of the CID in clinical research and practice. Its clinimetric characteristics, particularly the broad evaluation of affective symptomatology and the sensitivity to change, make it an instrument of choice in therapeutic trials.