Synonyms
HAM-D; HAMD, Hamilton rating scale for depression; HDRS; HRSD
Description
The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) is a widely used, semistructured interview that assists in assessing the presence and severity of depressive symptoms (Hamilton 1960). More than 20 published versions of the HAM-D exist (Bagby et al. 2004), with the most commonly used versions containing 17–21 items. Administration and scoring take approximately 20–30 min.
The original version contained 21 items, assessing depressive symptoms experienced in the past week such as depressed mood, guilt, psychomotor retardation, insomnia, somatic symptoms, weight loss, and suicide. As the scale was based on earlier conceptualizations of depressive disorders, it also includes items outside of current conceptualizations (per DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association 1994) of depressive disorders, including somatic anxiety and hypochondriasis. For the same reason, atypical depressive symptoms included in the DSM-IV,...
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References and Readings
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Ehde, D.M. (2018). Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1989
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1989
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