As with all of the self-rating depression scales, the BDI has its critics, but the development of the 1996 BDI-II appears to have ad- dressed many of these. The earlier comments included the breadth of coverage of the BDI and difficulties with some of the somatic items (50). Items on increased weight, appetite, and sleep (47), and psychomotor activity (7) were proposed. Vredenburg et al. tested a revised version and concluded that it had “a better factor structure and somewhat higher reliability than the original scale” (47, p775). Beck et al. initially disputed some details of the proposed changes (4, p85; 51), but the 1994 development of DSM-IV (70) formed the occasion for a revision. Most of the psychometric evidence on the BDI-II suggests that it is an improvement; although the overwhelming majority of evidence for validity and reliability has been collected using earlier versions, one may sup- pose that the new version will perform at least as well.