Identifying those at risk of depression following a diagnosis of Acute Coronary Syndrome: developing a screening intervention for use in the acute care hospital setting

Abstract

Identifying patients at risk of developing depression following a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome is a new strategy that creates an important opportunity for the provision of early psychological support at a critical phase in a patient’s recovery. The aim of this research programme was to develop a brief depression risk assessment instrument for use by nurses in the clinical setting and test its psychometric properties using a mixed method approach.