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. AIM: To study the IRR of scoring video-recorded interviews for 21-item Ham-D. MATERIALS AND 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. CONCLUSION: Video recorded 21-item Ham-D has excellentIRR. Video-recorded interviews of Ham-D can be reliably used to blind raters in research.