SELF-RATING PROCEDURES IN THE EVALUATION OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS - REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND RESULTS OF OUR STUDIES

Self-ratings are very practical and economical procedures to measure t he severity of depression in intraindividual comparisons. They are sen sitive to change induced by therapy and provide findings concerning th e global result of therapy and its time course, which are similar to d ata based on ratings by psychiatrists. Due to their practicability, se lf-rating procedures contribute to an exact description of the time co urse of depression in multiple measurement designs. However, the limit ations of the validity of self-rating procedures should not be neglect ed.