Abstract: Objective To study the correlation between the subjective self-rating scale of depression and the objective cognitive task monitoring method, and to provide a more accurate and effective method to improve the screening rate of depression in medical students. Methods Thirty-one students from Capital Medical University were recruited; the method of self-rated scale combined with objective task measurement was used. After completing questionnaires including Beck depression inventory (BDI), self-rating depression scale(SDS) and depression adjective checklist(DACL), students were required to perform emotional Stroop experiment immediately. Results The results of the scales indicated:the scores of BDI,SDS and DACL were 7.57±9.36, 37.27±5.23, 28.27±11.63, respectively. The results showed that there was a tendency to depression in medical students, according to the results of the questionnaires, the rate of depression of BDI was 53%, the overall trend of the selected scales was positively correlated, among them SDS and DACL, BDI and DACL were significantly correlated (r=0.44, P<0.05; r=0.36, P<0.05). The results of the emotional stroop task showed that the response times to the positive vocabulary in the normal group (Beck ≤ 4 points) and the proneness to depression (Beck ≥ 5 points) were 485 ms and 561 ms, respectively; the response times to the neutral vocabulary were 545 ms and 606 ms; the response times to negative vocabulary were 530 ms and 603 ms, respectively. Relative to the neutral vocabulary, subjects' response time to emotional vocabulary prolonged. The self-rating scale and objective cognitive tasks have certain extend of correlation. Conclusion The combination of the self-rating scale and objective task measurement will help medical colleges to screen depressive medical students more effectively. This provides a prerequisite for further depressive intervention.

Key words: self-rating scale, emotional Stroop, depression tendency, medical students