Disease-specific properties of the Rating Scale for Depression in patients with stroke, Alzheimer's dementia, and Parkinson's disease.

To compare the psychometric properties of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Ham-D) in patients with stroke, Alzheimer's dementia (AD), and Parkinson's disease (PD), receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted for each group. The concurrent validity of the Ham-D with the DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder was high in each of these groups. However, optimal performance of the Ham-D requires the application of disease-specific cutoff scores for screening, diagnostic, and dichotomization purposes. These disease-specific cutoff scores were highest in PD, lower in AD, and lowest in stroke patients.