The instrumental use of rating scales for depression.

This statistical analysis of the instrumental use of rating scales for depression has considered the following issues: Comprehensiveness, item definition, item combination, administration, applicability, homogeneity, inter-observer reliability, and validity. Within the compartment or dimension of severity of depression a subscale of the Hamilton Depression Scale (or the Melancholia Scale) was shown to have reached an instrumental perfection, e.g. as an outcome measure of antidepressant treatment. Within the compartment of personality scales the Marke Nyman Temperament Scale demonstrated that unipolar depressed patients with a score pattern similar to bipolar patients responded well and favourably to lithium. Within the compartment of diagnostic rating scales for depression the Newcastle Scales showed that for patients with an endogenous score, but not for patients with a non-endogenous score, a significant correlation existed between plasma levels of imipramine or clomipramine and clinical response.