Beck’s depression inventory (BDI) [Aaron T. Beck, American psychiatrist, b. 1921] , a system of classifying a total of 18 criteria of depressive illness. It was developed by Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for the treatment of childhood affective disorders. The BDI is similar to the 21-criteria DSM-IV diagnostic system of the 1980s except that the DSM-IV scale includes loss of interest, restlessness, and sulkiness, which are missing from the BDI; the Beck inventory lists somatic complaints and loneliness, which are criteria not included in the DSM-III inventory. See also DSM.
