Comparison of the standard and structured interview guide for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale in depressed geriatric inpatients.
The interrater reliability of the standard Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D) and a structured interview guide for the Ham-D (the SIGH-D) were compared in a sample of 20 elderly inpatients with major depression. Each patient was independently interviewed by four raters; two used the standard 24-item Ham-D, and the other two used a 24-item modified version of the Structured Interview Guide for the Ham-D. Systematic counterbalancing of raters and scales and a stringent evaluation schedule were used to counter position effects, spontaneous symptom change, or diurnal variation. The modified SIGH-D produced uniformly higher item- and summary-scale reliabilities than the unstructured Ham-D.
Moberg
P J
PJ
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104, USA. MOBERG@BBLMAIL.PSYCHA.UPENN.EDU
Lazarus
L W
LW
Mesholam
R I
RI
Bilker
W
W
Chuy
I L
IL
Neyman
I
I
Markvart
V
V
D000368:Aged; D002641:Chicago; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results