Geriatric Depression Scale Scoring

Mental healthcare professionals typically score the scale because they usually issue copies of the Geriatric Depression Scale to patients. If a non-professional gets a copy of it, even if they’re not taking therapy or something similar, they can answer and score the scale themselves. Still, they’re not allowed/supposed to diagnose themselves with depression.

No. The Geriatric Depression Scale is a screening tool, not a diagnostic tool. Mental healthcare professionals must conduct a comprehensive patient assessment and use other scales to check for consistency in possible depression severity and symptoms. Before diagnosing, they must cross-check all their findings with the most recent edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The scores can give the mental healthcare professional an idea of how severe a geriatric patient’s possible depression is.