Background: Despite the long and widespread use of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD), standardized reliability studies in inexperienced raters are not available.
Methods: Rater training was carried using three videotaped interviews with depressed patients in 21 psychiatric novices who had negligible previous experience with the HAMD. Chance-corrected coefficients of rating agreement with expert standards (weighted kappa, ICC) were computed for single items and the total score of the HAMD.
Results: The results demonstrate sufficiently high interrater reliability (kappa>0.60) for most of the HAMD items and the total score (ICC=0.57-0.73). Three standardized HAMD training sessions seem adequate to establish satisfactory agreement among psychiatric novices.
Limitations: The sample of video-taped interviews and, hence, the generalizability of the results, was restricted.
Conclusions: High inter-rater reliability of the HAMD justifies the use by clinically inexperienced researchers after standardized training.