Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression
|Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression|
The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), also called the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), abbreviated HAM-D, is a multiple item questionnaire used to provide an indication of depression, and as a guide to evaluate recovery. Max Hamilton originally published the scale in 1960 and revised it in 1966, 1967, 1969, and 1980. The questionnaire is designed for adults and is used to rate the severity of their depression by probing mood, feelings of guilt, suicide ideation, insomnia, agitation or retardation, anxiety, weight loss, and somatic symptoms.
Initially considered the "Gold Standard" for rating depression in clinical research, it is criticized as a test instrument for clinical practice in part because it places more emphasis on insomnia than on suicide ideas and gestures. An antidepressant may show statistical efficacy even when thoughts of suicide increase but sleep is improved, or for that matter, an antidepressant that as a side effect increase sexual and gastrointestinal symptom ratings may register as being less effective in treating the depression itself than it actually is. Hamilton maintained that his scale should not be used as a diagnostic instrument.
The original 1960 version contains 17 items to be rated (HRSD-17), but four other questions are not added to the total score and are used to provide additional clinical information. Each item on the questionnaire is scored on a 3 or 5 point scale, depending on the item, and the total score is compared to the corresponding descriptor. Assessment time is estimated at 20 minutes.
A score of 0-7 is considered to be normal. Scores of 20 or higher indicate moderate, severe, or very severe depression, and are usually required for entry into a clinical trial. Questions 18-20 may be recorded to give further information about the depression (such as whether diurnal variation or paranoid symptoms are present), but are not part of the scale. A structured interview guide for the questionnaire is available.
Other scales include the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, the Wechsler Depression Rating Scale, the Raskin Depression Rating Scale, the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS), the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS), and other questionnaires.
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- "the ham-d scale" (PDF). Retrieved 29 November 2012.
- Hedlund JL, Viewig BW (1979) The Hamilton rating scale for depression: a comprehensive review. Journal of Operational Psychiatry 10:149-165
- Hamilton, M (1960) A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. 23: 56-62 doi:10.1136/jnnp.23.1.56 PMID 14399272
- Hamilton M (1966) Assessment of change in psychiatric state by means of rating scales. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 59 (Suppl. 1): 10-13 PMID 5922401
- Hamilton, M (1967) Development of a rating scale for primary depressive illness. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 6: 278-96 PMID 6080235
- Hamilton, M (1969) Standardised assessment and recording of depressive symptoms. Psychiatria, Neurologia, Neurochirurgia. 72:201-205 PMID 5792061
- Hamilton, M (1980) Rating depressive patients. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 41: 21-24 PMID 7440521
- Bagby RM, Ryder AG, Schuller DR, Marshall MB (2004). "The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale: has the gold standard become a lead weight?". American Journal of Psychiatry. 161 (12): 2163–77. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2163. PMID 15569884.
- Berrios G E & Bulbena A (1990) The Hamilton Depression Scale and the Numerical Description of the Symptoms of Depression. In Bech P & Coppen A (ed) The Hamilton Scales, Heildeberg, Springer, pp80-92
- HDRS-17: Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) at University of Florida, College of Medicine. Additional Questions Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- Williams JBW (1989) A structured interview guide for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Archives of General Psychiatry 45: 742-747. PMID 3395203
- HRSD-7: 7-ITEM HAMILTON RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSION: HAMD-7 in Official website of CANMAT: Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments Accessed June 30, 2008, and McIntyre R, Kennedy S, Bagby RM, Bakish DJ (2002) Assessing full remission. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 27: 235-239 PMID 12174732
- HRSD-21: The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (to be administered by a health care professional) (presented as a service by GlaxoWellcome, February 1997) in UMass HealthNet: Consumer Health Resources for Massachusetts Residents: Official website of the Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01655 USA. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
- HRSD-24: Hamilton Depression Rating Scale - 24 item (to be completed by a trained clinician) in FOCUS ON ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: MEDAFILE; Site constructed and maintained by J. Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford / VA Alzheimer's Center, Palo Alto VA Hospital, 3801 Miranda Way, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
- HRSD-29: Williams JBW, Link MJ, Rosenthal NE, Terman M, Structured Interview Guide for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Seasonal Affective Disorders Version (SIGHSAD). New York Psychiatric Institute, New York, 1988
- Wechsler H, Grosser GH, Busfield BL Jr (1963) The depression rating scale: a quantitative approach to the assessment of depressive symptomatology. Archives of General Psychiatry. 9: 334-343 PMID 14045262
- Raskin A, Schulterbrandt J, Reatig N, McKeon JJ (1969) Replication of factors of psychopathology in interview, ward behavior and self-report ratings of hospitalized depressives. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 148: 87-98 doi:10.1097/00005053-196901000-00010 PMID 5768895
- Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS) & Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS) in IDS/QIDS: Instruments in English and Multiple Translations by the University of Pittsburgh Epidemiology Data Center, 2008. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
- Psychiatric Rating Scales for Depression in www.neurotransmitter.net website by Shawn M. Thomas. Retrieved June 30, 2008.
- HRSD online calculator
- PDF (49.0 KB)
- Clinically Useful Psychiatric Scales: HAM-D (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale). Accessed March 6, 2009.
- Hamilton Depression Rating Scale - Original scientific paper published in 1960 in Psychiatry out of Print website. Accessed June 27, 2008.
- Commentary on the HRSD by Max Hamilton, July 10, 1981, in "This Week's Citation Classic", Current Contents 33: 325 (August 17, 1981), in website of Eugene Garfield, Ph.D.. Accessed June 27, 2008.
- Side-by-side comparison of the MADRS and the HDRS-24 in "Description of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2007. Accessed June 27, 2008.