Is MMPI- depression scale reliable for assessing the tendencies of depression in an individual?

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI, is a series of questions with yes-or-no answers. It was originally designed to be administered in a pencil-and-paper format, with an answer sheet and booklet of about 565 numbered questions, but now may sometimes be taken on a computer provided by the psychologist conducting the assessment. (It's not available online, as far as I know.)
The MMPI was designed several decades ago to provide psychologists with an overview of the personality style and emotional symptoms of the person taking it. There are several scales measuring things like depression, anxiety, etc. There are also subscales that assess whether the person appears to be answering the questions randomly or is trying to appear either better off or worse off than they really are.

The original MMPI was revised in the 1980s, and as a result most psychologists now use and refer to the MMPI-2. The MMPI (particularly the original version) may be the most researched psychological (certainly personality) test in the world. It's frequently used by psychologists when conducting psychological assessments -- often in conjunction with other assessment instruments, such as intelligence tests and other personality tests such as the Rorschach inkblot test. Most licensed psychologists are trained to interpret MMPI results, or "profiles," which they usually consider along with other data about the individual. There are computer programs now available that score the MMPI/MMPI-2 results and even provide an interpretative report, but such programs are only supposed to be purchased and used by psychologists who are properly trained to interpret and use them. Source(s): Internet

This is of course very debatable (which I assume is why you're asking the question!).

All I can go by are my personal experiences -- The MMPI did match my profile of depression (in other words, not only did it figure out I was depressed, it also told me some true details about my depression, since of course there are many different kinds).

Sidenote: However, I haven't found the MMPI useful in other areas... for example, it marked me as prone to conversion and somatoform disorders (disorders, normally pain or movement-oriented, that are primarily psychological in nature). I haven't had somatoform pain since I was a child (15 years ago). The MMPI really confounded a diagnosis of a major neurological infection I have, since a couple of doctors took one look at my MMPI profile and assumed it was all somatoform/in my head. (sorry about the rant, just had to mention)
personal experience