Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale

The Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale is a ten-item diagnostic questionnaire which mental health professionals use to measure the severity of depressive episodes in patients with mood disorders. It was designed in 1979 by British and Swedish researchers as an adjunct to the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression which would be more sensitive to the changes brought on by antidepressants and other forms of treatment than the Hamilton Scale was. There is, however, a high degree of statistical correlation between scores on the two measures.

Interpretation

The questionnaire includes questions on ten symptoms:

Apparent sadness
Reported sadness
Inner tension
Reduced sleep
Reduced appetite
Concentration difficulties
Lassitude
Inability to feel
Pessimistic thoughts
Suicidal thoughts

Each item yields a score of 0 to 6; the overall score thus ranges from 0 to 60.
Higher MADRS score indicates more severe depression.
Usual cutoff points are:

0 to 6: normal /symptom absent
7 to 19: mild depression
20 to 34: moderate depression
35 to 60: severe depression.

MADRS-S

A self-rating version of this scale is often used in clinical practice and correlates reasonably well with expert ratings. The MADRS-S instrument has nine questions, with an overall score ranging from 0 to 54 points.