Major Depression Inventory

The Major Depression Inventory (MDI) is a self-report mood questionnaire developed by the World Health Organisation.

The instrument was constructed by a team lead by Professor Per Bech, a psychiatrist based at Frederiksborg General Hospital in Denmark.

The MDI differs from many other self-report inventories such as the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) because it is able to generate an ICD-10 or DSM-IV diagnosis of depression rather than an estimate of symptom severity.

Unlike many other similar instruments, the MDI is available free of charge and can be downloaded from the internet with a full manual and scoring instructions. This makes it an attractive option in epidemiological population surveys. It has also been translated into seven languages.