No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The results of factor analysis of HAMD are not unitary. Studying the stability in course and the independence of selection criteria for the population we rated two groups (n = 107, n = 98) of inpatients with HAMD; these groups differ in nosological selection criteria. We furthermore rated one group at different timepoints (before treatment and 3 weeks after). The one-factor-solution is the only stable one and the only one which is independent from selection criteria. In all groups the one-factor-solutions show a high similarity with other published solutions of the German version of HAMD. But there is no way to extract a general factor. Thus the ability of HAMD in judging the severity of depression is doubtful. Ways are discussed to circumvent this problem.

No abstract