Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression

The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), also known as the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) or HAM-D, is a 21-question multiple choice questionnaire that clinicians may use to rate the severity of a patient's major depression. [Hedlund JL, Viewig BW (1979) The Hamilton rating scale for depression: a comprehensive review. "Journal of Operational Psychiatry" 10:149-165] Max Hamilton originally published the scale in 1960 and reviewed and evaluated it in 1966,1967,1969 and 1980. [Hamilton, M (1960) A rating scale for depression. "Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry." 23: 56-62 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]

The questionnaire rates the severity of symptoms observed in depression such as low mood, insomnia, agitation, anxiety and weight loss. The questionnaire is presently one of the most commonly used scales for rating depression in medical research.

The clinician must choose the possible responses to each question by interviewing the patient and by observing the patient's symptoms. Each question has between 3-5 possible responses which increase in severity. The first 17 questions contribute to the total score (HRSD-17). [HDRS-17: [http://www.servier.com/App_Download/Neurosciences/Echelles/HDRS.pdf Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS)] "in" [http://www.servier.com Official website of Servier] Accessed June 30, 2008.] Questions 18-21 are 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. [Williams JBW (1989) A structured interview guide for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. "Archives of General Psychiatry" 45: 742-747. PMID 3395203]

Although Hamilton's original scale had 17 questions, others later developed HRSD scales with different numbers of questions, the greatest of which is 29 (HRSD-29). [HRSD-7: [http://www.canmat.org/resources/PDF/HAMD-7%20rating%20scale.pdf 7-ITEM HAMILTON RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSION: HAMD-7] "in" [http://www.canmat.org/ 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: [http://healthnet.umassmed.edu/mhealth/HAMD.pdf The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression] (to be administered by a health care professional) (presented as a service by GlaxoWellcome, February 1997) "in" [http://healthnet.umassmed.edu UMass HealthNet: Consumer Health Resources for Massachusetts Residents: Official website of the Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01655 USA] Accessed June 27, 2008.] [HRSD-24: [http://www.medafile.com/cln/HDRS.html Hamilton Depression Rating Scale - 24 item] (to be completed by a trained clinician) "in" [http://www.medafile.com 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] Accessed 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] Clinicians can use the HRSD in place of, or in conjunction with, the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, the Wechsler Depression Rating Scale, [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] the Raskin Depression Rating Scale, [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 PMID 5768895] the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS), the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS), [ [http://www.ids-qids.org/index2.html Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS) & Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS)] "in" [http://www.ids-qids.org/ IDS/QIDS: Instruments in English and Multiple Translations] by the University of Pittsburgh Epidemiology Data Center, 2008. Accessed June 27, 2008.] and other questionnaires. [ [http://www.neurotransmitter.net/depressionscales.html Psychiatric Rating Scales for Depression] "in" [http://www.neurotransmitter.net www.neurotransmitter.net website] by [http://www.neurotransmitter.net/bio.html Shawn M. Thomas] . Accessed June 30, 2008.]

Notes

See also

* Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
* List of psychology topics
* Receiver operating characteristic

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/psych_out_print_hamilton/ Hamilton Depression Rating Scale - Original scientific paper published in 1960] "in" [http://www.geocities.com/psych_out_print Pyschiatry out of Print website] . Accessed June 27, 2008.
* [http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1981/A1981MA25900001.pdf Commentary on the HRSD by Max Hamilton, July 10, 1981] , "in" "This Week's Citation Classic", Current Contents 33: 325 (August 17, 1981), "in" [http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu website of Eugene Garfield, Ph.D.] . Accessed June 27, 2008.
* Side-by-side comparison of the MADRS and the HDRS-24 "in" [http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/AC/07/briefing/2007-4273b1_04-DescriptionofMADRSHAMDDepressionR(1).pdf "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.