Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression or HRSD, also known as the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale or HAM-D, is a 21-question multiple choice questionnaire which clinicians may use to rate the severity of a patient's depression.^[1] The questionnaire rates the severity of symptoms observed in depression such as low mood, insomnia, agitation, anxiety and weight-loss. It was originally published in 1960 by Max Hamilton, and is presently one of the most commonly used scales for rating depression in medical research. It may be used in place of, or in conjunction with, the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale.

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 and questions 18-21 are recorded to give further information about the depression such as if paranoid symptoms are present.

Although Hamilton's original rating scale for depression (HRSD-21) had 21 items (questions), he and others later developed HRSD questionnaires with different numbers of items, the greatest of which is 24 (HRSD-24).^[2][3]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Hamilton, M (1960) A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. 23: 56-62 PMID 14399272 (HRSD-21)
2. ^ Hamilton, M (1980) Rating depressive patients. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 41: 21-24 PMID 7440521 (HRSD-17)
3. ^ Hamilton Depression Rating Scale - 24 item (to be completed by a trained clinician)

[edit] External links

• Hamilton Depression Rating Scale - Original scientific paper published in 1960
• Commentary on the HRSD by Max Hamilton (written in 1981)
• The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depresssion (HDRS-21) (to be administered by a health care professional)
• Side-by-side comparison of the MADRS and HDRS-24 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration\