Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression with Medical In-Patients

Abstract

This report evaluates the use of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS) (5) in a general medical in-patient population; it is one part of a comprehensive study of depression in these patients (10, 11). The Hamilton Rating Scale was designed to measure the severity of depression in patients already diagnosed as having depressive illness. Hamilton (5) states, “the scale quantifies the results of an interview and is of practical value in assessing the results of treatment.” Recently, the HRS has been used for measuring psychiatric patients' responses to antidepressant medications (7, 9, 12), but there are no reports of its use with medical patients.