Hamilton Depression Scale Health Article

Definition

The Hamilton Depression Scale (HDS or HAMD) is a test measuring the severity of depressive symptoms in individuals, often those who have already been diagnosed as having a depressive disorder. It is sometimes known as the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) or the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS).

Purpose

The HDS is used to assess the severity of depressive symptoms present in both children and adults. It is often used as an outcome measure of depression in evaluations of antidepressant psychotropic medications and is a standard measure of depression used in research of the effectiveness of depression therapies and treatments. It can be administered prior to the start of medication and then again during follow-up visits, so that medication dosage can be changed in part based on the patient's test score. The HDS often used as the standard against which other measures of depression are validated.

The HDS was developed by Max Hamilton in 1960 as a measure of depressive symptoms that could be used in conjunction with clinical interviews with depressed patients. It was later revised in 1967. Hamilton also designed the Hamilton Depression Inventory (HDI), a self-report measure consistent with his theoretical formulation of depression in the HDS, and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS), an interviewer-rated test measuring the severity of anxiety symptoms.

Precautions

Some symptoms related to depression, such as self-esteem and self-deprecation, are not explicitly included in the HDS items. Also, because anxiety is specifically asked about on the HDS, it is not always possible to separate symptoms related to anxiety from symptoms related to depression.

Because the HDS is an interviewer-administered and rated measure, there is some subjectivity when it comes to interpretation and scoring. Interviewer bias can impact the results. For this reason, some people prefer self-report measures where scores are completely based on the interviewee's responses.