Centre for Policy on Ageing



Rating depression severity in the elderly physically ill patient — reliability and factor structure of the Hamilton and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale
Author(s)	Margaret F Hammond
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 13, no 4, April 1998
Pages	pp 257-261
Keywords	Depression ; Ill health ; Screening ; Evaluation.
Annotation	The author assessed the appropriateness of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDS) and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating scale (MADRS) in depressed, physically ill older patients. Depression scale scores were assessed for internal consistency using Crohnbach's _, and subjected to exploratory principle components factor analysis. The coefficient _ for both scales is well below the minimum necessary for the total score to be used to represent a single construct. The HDS appears to be an unreliable measure of depression severity in older people with physical illness, as the major variance in the score is due to anxiety and insomnia. The MADRS performs better, and with modification may provide a useful measure of depression severity in this population. The conclusion requires replication and validation in further studies of physically ill and depressed older people. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-980508006 A
Classmark	ENR: CH: 3V: 4C
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.