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From: vauxall on 25 Jul 2007 12:56
x-no-archive:yes

The Hamilton test is often quoted as a benchmark to measure progress
in anti depression treatments. You can Google and download a copy. I
am answering the questions and my score fluctuates between 15 and 20.

I understand it should be administered by somebody else (your psych),
but I wonder if any of you has ever tested oneself and if it makes
sense at all.

Thank you

V.

From: Doug Laidlaw on 29 Jul 2007 23:14
Ricki wrote:

> I took the test (myself). Scored a 26.
>
> All the questions made perfect sense to me (I also worked for a psych
> for 6 years and am married to a psychotherapist).
>
> If I can help, I'll be happy to do so.
>
> Ricki
>
> On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:56:50 -0000, vauxall <vauxall(a)virgilio.it>
> wrote:
>
>>x-no-archive:yes
>>
>>The Hamilton test is often quoted as a benchmark to measure progress
>>in anti depression treatments. You can Google and download a copy. I
>>am answering the questions and my score fluctuates between 15 and 20.
>>
>>I understand it should be administered by somebody else (your psych),
>>but I wonder if any of you has ever tested oneself and if it makes
>>sense at all.
>>
>>Thank you
>>
>>V.
But can you answer the questions objectively?

In a biography of Princess Diana,there was a list of about 11 symptoms of
Borderline Personality Disorder (rather like the list applicable to
depression.) There was also a comment that seeing life like a child
looking in a shop window (how a friend described Diana) was typical of the
condition. How scientific or how valid this description was, I don't know.

I commented to my wife that the feeling of a child looking in a shop window
was one I could identify with. She immediately decided that I had BPD, and
didn't agree with my psychologist's assessment to the contrary, even when
he said that in addition to not fitting anything in the list, except a mild
touch of two items, I didn't "present" as one, i.e. he had seen enough
cases to pick one. She fastened on the same two items, but her assessment
was higher. It is fair enough to say that as a pharmacist, she was used to
the idea of a diagnosed pigeon-holed illness. Recently, years later, she
accepted the idea of not "presenting" as a case, and found it reassuring.

I find that depression is very difficult to describe from the "inside", from
my side as a sufferer. I would much rather have the test administered by a
third person.

Another story, not about depression, strengthens this. Years before what I
just described, I had an overall physical checkup. One isolated finding
was consistent with arthritis, but in the context, it meant nothing. For
that reason, they would not take patients for the test without a referral
from a doctor who could interpret the results. As with the BPD issue, the
results have to be taken in the context of the overall person.

For these reasons, I wouldn't take an assessment myself. And if I did, what
could I do with it? I am not qualified to make any treatment decision
based on the results. If the test says that I am not progressing, it would
probably make me more depressed. There does seem to be a tendency among
depressed people to concentrate on their illness. I try to turn my
attention outwards. I try to look on my depression in the same way as a
disability, and to push its limitations as far out as possible. Think of
Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, who were most successful at that,
and achieved greatly. They did not sit at home waiting for the wonder
drug - in Lincoln's time, there weren't any.

Doug.
--
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.
- R.L. Stevenson.

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