Utility, validity, feasibility and acceptability of a clinician-administered depression, two-question screening tool for routine multiple sclerosis clinic administration

BACKGROUND: Depression is prevalent among individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) yet frequently goes undetected and untreated. Time constraints are a barrier to depression screening in MS clinics. We evaluated the clinical utility, diagnostic accuracy and feasibility of the Two-Question Screening tool (2QS) for routine, in-clinic depression screening. OBJECTIVES: (SCID-5) for major depressive disorder (MDD), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Internal consistency, convergent validity and clinician feasibility were assessed. RESULTS: = 0.74. CONCLUSIONS: Clinician-administered 2QS is valid and feasible for routine depression screening at MS clinic appointments. With high sensitivity and acceptable specificity, the clinician-administered 2QS is suitable to improve depression detection in people with MS.

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Publication Details

Journal
Multiple Sclerosis Journal
Published
2026-04-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/13524585261435415
Primary Topic
Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Utility, validity, feasibility and acceptability of a clinician-administered depression, two-question screening tool for routine multiple sclerosis clinic administration

Vanessa Fanning, David Skvarc, Jayashri Kulkarni, Ruby Hamer et al.
Multiple Sclerosis Journal
Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
article

Utility, validity, feasibility and acceptability of a clinician-administered depression, two-question screening tool for routine multiple sclerosis clinic administration

Vanessa Fanning, David Skvarc, Jayashri Kulkarni, Ruby Hamer, Nevin John, Ernest Butler, Michelle Allan, Lisa Grech, Victor Chong, Deepa Rajendran, Martin Short, Nigel Caswell, Sally Shaw, Emily Friedel, Jennifer Neil, Andrew Giles
article en

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Depression is prevalent among individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) yet frequently goes undetected and untreated. Time constraints are a barrier to depression screening in MS clinics. We evaluated the clinical utility, diagnostic accuracy and feasibility of the Two-Question Screening tool (2QS) for routine, in-clinic depression screening. OBJECTIVES: (SCID-5) for major depressive disorder (MDD), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Internal consistency, convergent validity and clinician feasibility were assessed. RESULTS: = 0.74. CONCLUSIONS: Clinician-administered 2QS is valid and feasible for routine depression screening at MS clinic appointments. With high sensitivity and acceptable specificity, the clinician-administered 2QS is suitable to improve depression detection in people with MS.

Multiple Sclerosis Journal
Deakin University (AU), Cerebral Palsy Alliance (AU), Monash Medical Centre (AU), Frankston Hospital (AU), Melbourne School of Theology (AU), Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research centre (AU), Peninsula Health (AU), Monash Health (AU), Monash University (AU), Swinburne University of Technology (AU), Blackburn College (US)
Multiple Sclerosis Australia
Openalex Percentile: Top 13%
Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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