Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder. Its main symptoms are those from the scope of motor and non-motor functions. Both groups of those symptoms considerably influence the patient’s health-related quality of life. Non-motor symptoms are frequently overlooked, and, as a consequence, poorly treated. It leads to complications in therapy and a decreased level of quality of life of both patients and their caretakers. One of the co-occurring disorders is depression. Many of the symptoms overlap with those of Parkinson’s disease. This presents additional requirements for the clinician/researcher and their psychometric tools. There are many clinical scales and self-report questionnaires successfully used for screening, diagnosis, or checking the progress in the treatment of depression. These include: Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Inventory of Depressive Symptoms – Self-Rated (IDS-SR), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS-Part I), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Cornell Scale for the Assessment of Depression in Dementia (CSDD), Inventory of Depressive Symptoms – Clinician (IDS-C), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D), Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). The most efficient tools in recognizing depression in Parkinson’s disease are clinical scales, especially Hamilton and Montgomery–Åsberg scales. Their usefulness and effectiveness is high for both the screening process and for measuring the severity of depressive symptoms. Beck Depression Inventory shows similar outcomes. Slightly less research in this area has been carried out on the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms – Clinician, yet this is a promising tool. Questionnaire version of this tool – Inventory of Depressive Symptoms – Self-Rated – does not live up to the expectations in the diagnosis of depression at an appropriate level in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Similar conclusions can be drawn with respect to Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale – Part I, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Rating Scale. For screening purposes, Geriatric Depression Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire and Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale are valid in depression in Parkinson’s disease. Cornell Scale for the Assessment of Depression in Dementia seems a promising tool for screening once it has been tested more.

depression, Parkinson’s disease, diagnostic criteria, clinical scale, self-report questionnaire