Administration of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale using interactive voice response technology.

We compared the reliability and equivalence of scores on the Hamilton rating scale for depression obtained by an interactive voice response (IVR) system and by human raters among 367 subjects 18 to 79 years old. Structured clinical interviews indicated that 93 of these subjects met the DSM-IV criteria for current major depression. We also examined short forms using the IVR data. The results obtained with the long (17-item) IVR interview correlated with those of the face-to-face interview, as did the results of the short (six- and eight-item) IVR interviews. In a random sample of 264 subjects, linear transformations of IVR results produced scores equivalent to clinical scores in the validation sample. We conclude that computerized assessment of the severity of depression by touch-tone telephone presents expanded opportunities for outcome research.