Optimized short-forms of the Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire

Amanda S Morrison; Berk Ustun; Arielle Horenstein; Simona C Kaplan; Irismar Reis de Oliveira; Sedat Batmaz; James J Gross; Ekaterina Sadikova; Curt Hemanny; Pedro P Pires; Philippe R Goldin; Ronald C Kessler; Richard G Heimberg

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102624

Optimized short-forms of the Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire

J Anxiety Disord. 2022 Dec:92:102624. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102624. Epub 2022 Aug 20.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA. Electronic address: amanda.morrison@csueastbay.edu.
² Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
³ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁴ Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Federal University of Bahia, Bahia, Brazil.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Social Sciences University of Ankara, Ankara, Turkey.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Postgraduate Program of Interactive Processes of Organs and Systems, Health Sciences Institute, Federal University of Bahia, Bahia, Brazil.
⁹ Department of Psychometrics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
¹⁰ Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 36087565
DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102624

Abstract

Introduction: The Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire (CD-Quest) is a self-report questionnaire that assesses common cognitive distortions. Although the CD-Quest has excellent psychometric properties, its length may limit its use.

Methods: We attempted to develop short-forms of the CD-Quest using RiskSLIM - a machine learning method to build short-form scales that can be scored by hand. Each short-form was fit to maximize concordance with the total CD-Quest score for a specified number of items based on an objective function, in this case R², by selecting an optimal subset of items and an optimal set of small integer weights. The models were trained in a sample of US undergraduate students (N = 906). We then validated each short-form on five independent samples: two samples of undergraduate students in Brazil (Ns = 182, 183); patients with depression in Brazil (N = 62); patients with social anxiety disorder in the US (N = 198); and psychiatric outpatients in Turkey (N = 269).

Results: A 9-item short-form with integer scoring was created that reproduced the total 15-item CD-Quest score in all validation samples with excellent accuracy (R² = 90.4-93.6%). A 5-item ultra-short-form had good accuracy (R² = 78.2-85.5%).

Discussion: A 9-item short-form and a 5-item ultra-short-form of the CD-Quest both reproduced full CD-Quest scores with excellent to good accuracy. These shorter versions of the full CD-Quest could facilitate measurement of cognitive distortions for users with limited time and resources.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02036658.

Keywords: Assessment; Cognitive behavioral therapy; Cognitive distortions; Cognitive errors; Short form.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Cognition*
Humans
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Students*
Surveys and Questionnaires

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT02036658

Grants and funding

R01 MH092416/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States