A person was defined as having had a lifetime major depressive episode (MDE) if he or she had at least five or more of the following nine symptoms in the same 2-week period in his or her lifetime, in which at least one of the symptoms was a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities: (1) depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day; (2) markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all or almost all activities most of the day, nearly every day; (3) significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day; (4) insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day; (5) psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day; (6) fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day; (7) feelings of worthlessness nearly every day; (8) diminished ability to think or concentrate or indecisiveness nearly every day; and (9) recurrent thoughts of death or recurrent suicide ideation.

This definition is based on the definition found in the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).13 A person was defined as having an MDE in the past year if he or she (a) had a lifetime MDE; (b) had a period of time in the past 12 months when he or she felt depressed or lost interest or pleasure in daily activities for 2 weeks or longer; and (c) reported during this period of 2 weeks or longer in the past 12 months that he or she had "some of the other problems" that he or she reported for a lifetime MDE.

Because of changes that were made in the 2008 NSDUH questionnaire, the comparability of MDE estimates over time was affected for adults. Adjusted MDE variables have been developed to allow trends in adult MDE to be reported for 2005 onward.14 More information on the comparability of MDE measures for adults can be found in Appendix I of the codebook for the 2010 NSDUH public use file.15

SEE: "Kessler-6 (K6) Scale," "Prevalence," "Severe Impairment due to Major Depressive Episode," "Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS)," and "World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS)."

- https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/2011MHFDT/2k...

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As was the case with the drug use variables, the CAI skip logic also did not eliminate all opportunities for inconsistent reports in the mental health questions. Consequently, the logical editing procedures for the mental health data could slightly increase the amount of missing data when inconsistent answers were given. For example, if adult or adolescent respondents who met the criteria for a lifetime major depressive episode (MDE) (see Section B.4.4) reported an age at onset for depression symptoms28 that was greater than their current age, the inconsistent age-at-onset variable was set to a missing value. However, the number of respondents in 2013 with this inconsistency was small (i.e., fewer than 10 respondents aged 12 or older).

For more information on editing and statistical imputation, see Sections A.3.1 and A.3.2 of Appendix A. Details of the editing and imputation procedures for 2013 also will appear in the 2013 NSDUH Methodological Resource Book, which is in process. Until that volume becomes available, refer to the 2012 NSDUH Methodological Resource Book (CBHSQ, 2014b).

- https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUHmhfr201...