[ariesmars]

on my psychiatrist report there is a number for a depression scale i cant find it right now, just wanted to know what it means. is a high number worse than lower number.

[ECHOES]

It would depend on the scale being used. It could be either way...

I had a psychiatrist once who developed his own rating scale based on a series of questions. I think the scale was low = less depression symptoms reported and high = increase of depression symptoms reported. But I believe that was an ongoing measurement, one that compared one reporting to the next, and the scale was relevant to each patient individually.

Comparing the results over time was helpful to the psychiatrist and the patient, to see how different medications helped or didn't help, for example.

[Oxidopamine]

There are several scales to assess depression used today, such as the BDI-II (Beck's Depression Inventory - II), HRSD (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression), PHQ (Patient Health Questionnaire) and so forth. There are also more general scales used to assess multiple possible mental illnesses, such as the MMPI - II. In the psychiatrist report, does it indicate which scale was used?

OR, is it labelled as Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF)?

[ariesmars]

the report dont say anything other than axis V: current 60, highest in past year:60

i found in my social securtity papers it says global assessment of functioning of only 50 was assessed.

[Oxidopamine]

Originally Posted by ariesmars

the report dont say anything other than axis V: current 60, highest in past year:60

i found in my social securtity papers it says global assessment of functioning of only 50 was assessed.

Axis V is the global assessment of functioning. It is assessed on a scale of 0-100 in terms of symptom severity and the higher the number the better one functions. People are rarely, if ever, given a rating of 100. 70-90 indicates very mild symptom severity that results in minor impairment. I'm not sure why your social security papers say 50 while the axis V in the psychiatric report says 60, perhaps they were taken from different times or from different doctors? A rating of 50-60 generally indicates moderate to serious symptom severity, however, not to a point where hospitalization is required. Below are 2 links to see the entire GAF:

http://www.gpscbc.ca/system/files/MH_GAF_summary.pdf (PDF form)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_...of_Functioning (HTML form)

[ariesmars]

50 was 3 yrs ago, 60 more recent, but now feeling like 40-50