The Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression: A Critical Review of Clinimetric Properties of Different Versions

The format of the original Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) was unstructured: only general instructions were provided for rating individual items. Over the years, a number of modified versions of the HAM-D have been proposed. They differ not only in the number of items, but also in modal...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychotherapy and psychosomatics 2020-04, Vol.89 (3), p.133-150
Main Authors: Carrozzino, Danilo, Patierno, Chiara, Fava, Giovanni A., Guidi, Jenny
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Depression - diagnosis
Depression, Mental
Diagnosis
Evaluation
Humans
Mental health surveys
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales - standards
Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data
Reproducibility of Results
Standard Review Article
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The format of the original Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) was unstructured: only general instructions were provided for rating individual items. Over the years, a number of modified versions of the HAM-D have been proposed. They differ not only in the number of items, but also in modalities of administration. Structured versions, including item definitions, anchor points and semi-structured or structured interview questions, were developed. This comprehensive review was conducted to examine the clinimetric properties of the different versions of the HAM-D. The aim was to identify the HAM-D versions that best display the clinimetric properties of reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change. The search was conducted on MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed, and yielded a total of 35,473 citations, but only the most representative studies were included. The structured versions of the HAM-D were found to display the highest inter-rater and test-retest reliability. The Clinical Interview for Depression and the 6-item HAM-D showed the highest sensitivity in differentiating active treatment from placebo. The findings indicate that the HAM-D is a valid and sensitive clinimetric index, which should not be discarded in view of obsolete and not clinically relevant psychometric criteria. The HAM-D, however, requires an informed use: unstructured forms should be avoided and the type of HAM-D version that is selected should be specified in the registration of the study protocol and in the methods of the trial.
ISSN:0033-3190
1423-0348
DOI:10.1159/000506879