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Document type:
Journal Article; Article
Author(s):
Leucht, Stefan; Fennema, Hein; Engel, Rolf; Kaspers-Janssen, Marion; Lepping, Peter; Szegedi, Armin
Title:
What does the HAMD mean?
Abstract:
Little is known about the clinical relevance of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD-17) total scores. It is unclear how total scores translate into clinical severity, or what commonly used measures for response (reduction from baseline of >= 50% in the total score) and remission (total HAMD-17 score <= 7) mean from a clinical perspective. We therefore compared: (a) the percentage and absolute change in the HAMD-17 total scores with Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I); (b) the absolute and percentage change in the HAMD-17 total scores with Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) absolute change; and (c) the percentage and absolute change in the HAMD-17 total scores with CGI-I in the subgroups of patients with <= median and > median HAMD-17 total scores at baseline. The method used was equipercentile linking of HAMD-17 and CGI ratings from 43 drug trials in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (n = 7131). Our results confirm the validity of the commonly used measures for remission and response in MDD trials: a CGI-I score of 2 ('much improved') corresponded to a reduction from baseline of > 50% and < 60%, and a CGI-I score of 1 ('very much improved') to a reduction of > 75% and < 85%. The CGI-S score of 1 ('normal., not at all ill') corresponded to the HAMD-17 total score of < 5 and the CGI-S score of 2 ('borderline mentally ill') to the score between 6 and 8. An effect of baseline illness severity was observed.
Journal title abbreviation:
J Affect Disord
Year:
2013
Journal volume:
148
Journal issue:
2-3
Pages contribution:
243-8
Language:
eng
Fulltext / DOI:
doi:10.1016/j.jad.2012.12.001
Pubmed ID:
http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23357658
Print-ISSN:
0165-0327
TUM Institution:
Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
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