Hamilton Depression Rating Scale
The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, published by Max Hamilton in 1960, is a clinician-administered interview assessment of depressive symptom severity. The most common version contains 17 items (HAM-D-17), though 21-item and 24-item versions exist. It is considered the gold standard outcome measure in antidepressant drug trials and remains the most cited depression rating scale in the psychiatric literature. Unlike self-report measures, HAM-D requires clinician judgment and observation, making it particularly valuable in research settings where standardized measurement by trained raters is essential.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Hamilton, M. (1960). A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 23(1), 56–62. · DOI 10.1136/jnnp.23.1.56
- Bagby, R. M., Ryder, A. G., Schuller, D. R., & Marshall, M. B. (1997). The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale: has the gold standard become a lead weight? American Journal of Psychiatry, 161(12), 2163–2177. · DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2163
- Williams, J. B. (1988). A structured interview guide for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45(8), 742–747. · DOI 10.1001/archpsyc.1988.01800320058007
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.