The Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) is a semi-structured interview widely used for the assessment of depression in children and adolescents. The aim of this study is the development and validation of an Arabic version of this scale. TheCDRS-Rwas translated into Arabic and back-translated into English; the finalized Arabic version was administered to 20 outpatients aged 12 to 18 who were diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, and 19 healthy controls of the same age range. The participants additionally were administered the Arabic versions of the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDIII) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The mean CDRS-R scores were 49.15 (standard deviation: 7.17) for the depressed group and 19.58 (standard deviation: 5.06) for the control group; the scores obtained by the two groups were significantly different (Mann Whitney's U= 1.00, P < .001, effect size = -.85). Furthermore, the participants' scores on the CDRS-R correlated significantly with those on the BDI-II (Spearman's rho = .758, P < .001), the SDQ Total Difficulties Score (Spearman's rho = .714, P < .001) and the SDQ Emotional Subscale Score (Spearman's rho = .719, P < .001). These preliminary results reflect good discriminant and concurrent validity of the Arabic version of the CDRS-R.

Hariz, N., et al. (2012). "Children"s depression rating scale-revised (CDRS-R): Preliminary data on the validity of the Arabic version." Neuropsychiatrie de l Enfance et de l Adolescence 60(5): S168.

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