title: Inter-rater reliability of Hamilton depression rating scale using video- recorded interviews - Focus on rater-blinding.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hamilton depression rating scale (Ham-D) is the most widely used clinician rating scale for depression. There has been no Indian study that has examined the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of video-recorded interviews of the 21-item Ham-D.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the IRR of scoring video-recorded interviews for 21-item Ham-D.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen subjects with major depressive disorder involved in a larger study were interviewed using the semi-structured clinical interview of the 21-item Ham-D by a primary rater after informed consent. These interviews were video-recorded and portions edited to ensure rater blinding. Subsequently, the video-recorded interviews were rated by a "blind" rater. Both rated the different sub-domains of Ham-D according to Rhoades and Overall (1983). IRR was evaluated using intra-class correlation coefficient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Excellent IRR was observed (0.9891) between the two raters. This was true for each of the primary factors and super-factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Video recorded 21-item Ham-D has excellentIRR. Video-recorded interviews of Ham-D can be reliably used to blind raters in research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore - 560029, India.
authors.forename: M Krishna
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Udupa
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Kishore
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thirthalli
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Sathyaprabha
authors.forename: B N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Gangadhar