A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Two Treatment Strategies, Evaluating the Meaningfulness of HAM-D Rating Scale in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

Introduction: Due to the complexity of symptoms in major depressive disorder (MDD), the majority of depression scales fall short of accurately assessing a patient's progress. When selecting the most appropriate antidepressant treatment in MDD, a multidimensional scale such as the Hamilton Depression Rating scale (HAM-D) may provide clinicians with more information especially when coupled with unidimensional analysis of some key factors such as depressed mood, altered sleep, psychic and somatic anxiety and suicidal ideation etc.

Methods: HAM-D measurements were carried out in patients with MDD when treated with two different therapeutic interventions. The prespecified primary efficacy variables for the study were changes in score from baseline to the end of the 12 weeks on HAM-D scale (i.e., ≤ 8 or ≥50% response). The study involved three assessment points (baseline, 6 weeks and 12 weeks).

Results: Evaluation of both the absolute HAM-D scores and four factors derived from the HAM-D (depressed mood, sleep, psychic and somatic anxiety and suicidal ideation) revealed that the latter showed a greater promise in gauging the anti-depressant responses.

Conclusion: The study confirms the assumption that while both drugs may improve several items on the HAM-D scale, the overall protocol may fall short of addressing the symptoms diversity in MDD and thus the analysis of factor (s) in question might be more relevant and meaningful.