The Challenges of Measuring Symptoms of Depression in Disability Healthcare

Depression is a psychiatric construct, most commonly operationalised as a sustained period of low mood and/or loss of interest/pleasure in activities (APA, 2013). Depression is considerably overrepresented among people living with physical illness, long-term disability and mobility-impairing conditions, with the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) consistently 2-3 times higher than in the general population (Moussavi et al., 2007; Read et al., 2017).