To examine the dimensions of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in psychiatric patients, BDI responses of 354 patients with various psychiatric diagnoses were factor analyzed. Results indicate that the items on the BDI assess two primary dimensions of depression: cognitive and somatic-affective symptoms. Internal consistency reliabilities for the items comprising each of the factors were acceptable. Analyses showed that women scored significantly higher than men on both the factors and on total depression. In future research, it may be useful to develop scoring systems based on these two dimensions, both to differentiate between types of and levels of depression, and to consider implications for treatment response
