BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggest that, together with clinical assessment, sleep questionnaires can adequately characterize sleep complaints in depressed patients. OBJECTIVE: To determine reability and reproducibility of the Sleep Habits Questionnaire in the identification of sleep disorder complaints, such as insomnia and excessive sleepiness, in depressed outpatients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with a study sample of 70 depressed patients was conducted in the psychiatry outpatient unit of a general hospital. Patients were interviewed and evaluated by the Sleep Habits in two moments and the study design included a test-retest reliability of the answers, which were analyzed and estimated by means of Kappa coefficient. RESULTS: In the reliability and reproducibility analysis, the Kappa coefficient showed high levels of concordance (0.73 a 0.80) for most questions, and in most of the items coefficients were above 0.75. CONCLUSIONS: The Sleep Habits Questionnaire proved to be reliable for the evaluation of insomnia and excessive sleepiness complaints in depressed outpatients.
Sleep disorders; sleep initiation and maintenance disorder; disorders of excessive somnolence; depressive disorder; questionnaires
