The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression
(Max Hamilton, 1960)
Purpose
The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) is completed by a clinician to indicate the severity of depression in patients already diagnosed with a depressive disorder; it is not a diagnostic instrument (1; 2). It covers depressive state rather than trait and is intended primarily as a research tool to be used in “quantifying the results of an interview” (1, p56).
Conceptual Basis
Hamilton’s involvement in early clinical trials of then newly developed antidepressants led to the development of the HRSD (3). A reliable scale was needed to measure the severity of depression in patients with mental illness; one that could also be used with semiliterate or severely ill patients and could give information about symptoms, and was clearly related to diagnosis (4). The symptoms included were parsimonious rather than exhaustive, and were selected on the basis of the medical literature and clinical experience of the symptoms most frequently presented by patients (5).