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The Male Depression Risk Scale (MDRS-22) is a self-report questionnaire designed to measure depression symptoms in men specifically. This may be more accurate than gender-neutral depression tests because it specifically looks at the signs of depression and unhealthy coping habits commonly seen in men.
Participants rate themselves on a scale of 0–7 for 22 items across six specific subscales:
- Emotional suppression (Items 1, 2, 8, 17)
- Drug use (Items 13, 18, 22)
- Alcohol use (Items 3, 10, 11, 15)
- Anger and aggression (Items 12, 19, 20, 21)
- Somatic symptoms (Items 5, 6, 7, 9)
- Risk-taking (Items 4, 14, 16)
A total score is calculated as the sum of all 22 items. The higher the score, the more depression symptoms. Additionally, an average score (0–7) may be calculated for the total and for each subscale by dividing the score by the number of items in that scale, allowing response patterns to be compared across subscales on a common metric.
Items on the MDRS
Depressive symptoms are scored on a scale from 0 to 7, with 0 being ‘not at all’ and 7 being ‘almost always’:
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||
| No. | Item | Not at all | Almost always | ||||||
| 1 | I bottled up my negative feelings | ||||||||
| 2 | I covered up my difficulties | ||||||||
| 3 | I drank more alcohol than usual | ||||||||
| 4 | I drove dangerously or aggressively | ||||||||
| 5 | I had more heartburn than usual | ||||||||
| 6 | I had regular headaches | ||||||||
| 7 | I had stomach pains | ||||||||
| 8 | I had to work things out by myself | ||||||||
| 9 | I had unexplained aches and pains | ||||||||
| 10 | I needed alcohol to help me unwind | ||||||||
| 11 | I needed to have easy access to alcohol | ||||||||
| 12 | I overreacted to situations with aggressive behaviour | ||||||||
| 13 | I sought out drugs | ||||||||
| 14 | I stopped caring about the consequences of my actions | ||||||||
| 15 | I stopped feeling so bad while drinking | ||||||||
| 16 | I took unnecessary risks | ||||||||
| 17 | I tried to ignore feeling down | ||||||||
| 18 | I used drugs to cope | ||||||||
| 19 | I verbally lashed out at others without being provoked | ||||||||
| 20 | I was verbally aggressive to others | ||||||||
| 21 | It was difficult to manage my anger | ||||||||
| 22 | Using drugs provided temporary relief |
The total score is calculated by adding up all the values for the 22 items. The scale categorises total scores into risk severity levels:
- 0-31: Low risk
- 32-50: Elevated risk
- 51-86: High risk
- 87-154: Extreme risk