FACTORIAL STRUCTURE OF THE 17-ITEM HAMILTON DEPRESSION RATING-SCALE

The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was applied to 60 depressed inpat ients diagnosed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview . The information to rate the scale was obtained with a semistructured interview to standardize the scale administration method. Items were factorized using principal components analysis with Varimax rotation. Three factors were obtained with the simulation method, accounting for 47% of variance. The first includes the core symptoms of depression. The symptoms of patients having an isolated mood disorder were compare d with those having comorbidity with other diagnoses. The comorbidity did not affect the first factor but modified the second factor (anxiet y) and the third factor (insomnia).