Clinical utility of the 15-item geriatric depression scale (GDS-15) for use with young and middle-aged adults.

•The GDS-15 was administered to younger (N = 199) and older (N = 112) adults.•Clinical diagnostic interview was used to determine presence or absence of depression.•Classification accuracy was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.•There was no difference in classification accuracy between age cohorts.•The GDS-15 shows good criterion-related validity in adults aged 18 and older.