TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychometric properties of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale in multiple sclerosis
AU - Raimo, Simona
AU - Trojano, Luigi
AU - Spitaleri, Daniele
AU - Petretta, Vittorio
AU - Grossi, Dario
AU - Santangelo, Gabriella
PY - 2015/8/21
Y1 - 2015/8/21
N2 - Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is frequently associated with depressive symptoms and major depression. Objective: We assessed psychometric properties of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS, 17-item version) for assessing depressive symptomatology in a sample of MS patients. Methods: Seventy patients (aged 43.3 ± 10.3 years) completed the HDRS and a thorough clinical and neuropsychological assessment, including diagnosis of major depression according to the established clinical criteria. Results: HDRS was easy to administer and acceptable, and showed fair internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.8). The HDRS showed good convergent validity with respect to neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) subdomain of depression (rrho = .85) and good divergent validity with respect to remaining NPI subdomains (rrho 14.5 can identify clinically relevant depressive symptoms with good sensitivity (93 %) and specificity (97 %) with respect to the diagnosis of major depression. Such a cutoff identified clinically relevant depressive symptoms in 42 % of our MS sample, whereas 44.2 % patients met established clinical criteria for major depression. Conclusion: The HDRS can be considered as an easy, reliable, and valid tool to assess depressive symptomatology for clinical and research purposes in non-demented MS patients.
AB - Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is frequently associated with depressive symptoms and major depression. Objective: We assessed psychometric properties of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS, 17-item version) for assessing depressive symptomatology in a sample of MS patients. Methods: Seventy patients (aged 43.3 ± 10.3 years) completed the HDRS and a thorough clinical and neuropsychological assessment, including diagnosis of major depression according to the established clinical criteria. Results: HDRS was easy to administer and acceptable, and showed fair internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.8). The HDRS showed good convergent validity with respect to neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) subdomain of depression (rrho = .85) and good divergent validity with respect to remaining NPI subdomains (rrho 14.5 can identify clinically relevant depressive symptoms with good sensitivity (93 %) and specificity (97 %) with respect to the diagnosis of major depression. Such a cutoff identified clinically relevant depressive symptoms in 42 % of our MS sample, whereas 44.2 % patients met established clinical criteria for major depression. Conclusion: The HDRS can be considered as an easy, reliable, and valid tool to assess depressive symptomatology for clinical and research purposes in non-demented MS patients.
KW - Hamilton depression rating scale
KW - Multiple sclerosis
KW - Validation study and depression
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U2 - 10.1007/s11136-015-0940-8
DO - 10.1007/s11136-015-0940-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 25669154
AN - SCOPUS:84937252352
VL - 24
SP - 1973
EP - 1980
JO - Quality of Life Research
JF - Quality of Life Research
SN - 0962-9343
IS - 8
ER -