What does a HAM-D score mean?
If somebody has given you a HAM-D score and not explained it, put it in below. This reads it against the instrument's own published table. You do not have to take anything.
The full published table
These ranges come from the instrument's own scoring documentation rather than from us. They describe groups of people, not individuals.
| Score | Interpretation | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 7 | Normal | No evidence of clinical depression. |
| 8 – 13 | Mild Depression | Sub-clinical or mild depression. Psychotherapy (CBT/ACT) recommended. |
| 14 – 18 | Moderate Depression | Clinical MDD. Antidepressant pharmacotherapy combined with psychotherapy is standard of care. |
| 19 – 22 | Severe Depression | Severe MDD causing massive disruption to occupational and social functioning. |
| ≥ 23 | Very Severe Depression | Highest clinical urgency. Immediate psychiatric intervention required. Often accompanied by psychosis, total stupor, or severe suicidal risk. |
Why a number on its own is not much use
A total tells you where a set of answers landed on a scale. It does not say which questions produced it, and two people reaching the same total can be having quite different weeks. A score driven by sleep and appetite is not the same as an identical score driven by hopelessness, and the difference changes what tends to help.
A score near the edge of a range is also less meaningful than the label makes it sound. Thresholds are drawn to be useful across a population, not to mark a real line between two states, so a point either way can change the word without changing the person.
Why you cannot take this one here
HAM-D is not free to reproduce, so this site does not administer it. Long-standing public domain status; reproduced freely in clinical literature. Interpreting a score is a different matter: a scoring rule is a procedure rather than a creative work, and no question from the instrument appears on this page.