Inter-rater reliability of Hamilton depression rating scale using video- recorded interviews - Focus on rater-blinding.
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.
Prasad
M Krishna
MK
Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore - 560029, India.
Udupa
K
K
Kishore
K R
KR
Thirthalli
J
J
Sathyaprabha
T N
TN
Gangadhar
B N
BN