Depression Scale - article about Depression Scale

Using A Depression Scale

The Hamilton Rating Scale For Depression

The Hamilton Rating Scale is used by health care professionals in a clinical setting to gather data on a patient. The health care professional will ask the patient about different areas of their life and will give a numerical rating based on the answers the patient supplies. The patient will be asked about their mood, their feelings, their appetite, their sleeping habits, and a variety of other issues. The higher a patient score on the scale the more likely that depression is a problem and needs to be addressed. The health care worker will use this depression scale to determine how much intervention and what types are needed.

The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale

The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale is just what it says in the title. This is a one page questionnaire that a patient will fill out on their own and then a health care professional will analyze. On this form are twenty different statements about various feelings and issues in life. The patient will rate each area that they either agree with the statement a little of the time, some of the time, a good part of the time or most of the time. The health care professional will then assign a numerical value to the response and will total the score to help determine the level of depression.

The Goldberg Depression Scale

This scale can be used by the patient or the physician. A patient can actually use the scale on a weekly basis to track their mood and level of depression. The patient can then see patterns in their life and possible contributing factors to their depression. The patient can also bring the depression scale to the doctor’s visits so that the doctor can see how the depression and mood changes are affecting the patient. This scale has eighteen different statements that are rated on a scale of zero to five in level of agreement. The total score will define the level of depression.

These are just three samples of depression scales that can be used. The scales are a valuable tool for both the physician and the patient in assessing depression and mood.

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