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Biomedical subjects

R L Spitzer

Publications and source records attributed to R L Spitzer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). I: History, rationale, and description.

The history, rationale, and development of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) is described. The SCID is a semistructured interview for making the major Axis I DSM-III-R diagnoses. It is administered by a clinician and includes an introductory overview followed by nine modules, seven of which represent the major axis I diagnostic classes. Because of its modular construction, it can be adapted for use in studies in which particular diagnoses are not of interest. Using a decision tree approach, the SCID guides the clinician in testing diagnostic hypotheses as the interview is conducted. The output of the SCID is a record of the presence or absence of each of the disorders being considered, for current episode (past month) and for lifetime occurrence.

Decision Trees

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). II. Multisite test-retest reliability.

A test-retest reliability study of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R was conducted on 592 subjects in four patient and two nonpatient sites in this country as well as one patient site in Germany. For most of the major categories, kappa s for current and lifetime diagnoses in the patient samples were above .60, with an overall weighted kappa of .61 for current and .68 for lifetime diagnoses. For the nonpatients, however, agreement was considerably lower, with a mean kappa of .37 for current and .51 for lifetime diagnoses. These values for the patient and nonpatient samples are roughly comparable to those obtained with other structured diagnostic instruments. Sources of diagnostic disagreement, such as inadequate training of interviewers, information variance, and low base rates for many disorders, are discussed.

Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted

A structured diagnostic interview for hypochondriasis. A proposed criterion standard.

We developed a structured diagnostic interview for DSM-III-R hypochondriasis (SDIH) that is the first such clinician-administered instrument. The SDIH was administered to 88 general medical outpatients who scored above a predetermined cutoff on a hypochondriacal symptom questionnaire, and to 100 comparison patients randomly chosen from among those below the cutoff. Using the joint assessment method, interrater agreement on the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria was 88% to 97% and agreement on the diagnosis was 96%. Concurrent validity was suggested by a significant correlation between the interview and the primary care physicians' ratings of hypochondriasis. A measure of external validity was demonstrated in that several clinical characteristics thought to be ancillary features of hypochondriasis were significantly more prevalent in interview-positive patients than in interview-negative patients. Finally, the SDIH appeared to have discriminant validity in that patients diagnosed as hypochondriacal had several other clinical features that distinguished them from the patients who scored above the cutoff on hypochondriacal symptomatology, but failed to be diagnosed as hypochondriacal with the SDIH.

Ambulatory Care

Reliability of dual diagnosis. Substance dependence and psychiatric disorders.

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R was used to examine the effects of the co-occurrence of psychiatric and substance dependence disorders on diagnostic reliability. The test-retest reliability over a 1-week period was studied in groups of: a) individuals with current substance abuse diagnoses (N = 97), b) individuals with past, but not current, drug histories (N = 146), and c) individuals without substance abuse diagnoses (N = 356; primarily psychiatric patients). A measurement of reliability (Kappa coefficients) was estimated for four general psychiatric categories (psychotic, mood, anxiety, and eating disorders), along with specific most-frequent diagnoses in each category (schizophrenia, major depression, panic disorders, and bulimia nervosa, respectively). Past use and non-drug-use groups were similar in their generally reliable reporting of current and past psychiatric disorders. However, current mood and psychotic disorders were less reliably diagnosed in the group with current substance use disorders.

Adult

Now is the time to retire the term "organic mental disorders".

The organic/nonorganic distinction in contemporary classifications of mental disorders such as DSM-III and DSM-III-R has important prognostic and treatment implications, because it directs the clinician to pay special attention to the possibility of an underlying "physical" disorder as the cause of the mental disturbance. However, the term "organic" raises serious and intractable problems, since the connotative meaning of the term always returns to its historical roots, which imply an outmoded functional/structural, psychological/biological, and mind/body dualism. The authors present a proposal being considered for DSM-IV that would eliminate the term "organic" and reorganize the classification of organic mental disorders. Disorders previously referred to as "organic mental disorders" would be renamed as either "secondary disorders" (if they are due to "physical" disorders) or "substance-induced disorders." The entire classification of mental disorders would be reorganized to distribute the secondary and substance-induced disorders into the major groups with which they share phenomenology. The traditional organic mental disorders--delirium, dementia, and amnestic disorder--would be grouped together under the rubric of "cognitive impairment disorders." While acknowledging problems with the suggested new terminology and reorganization of the classification, the authors argue that the potential benefits of the proposal for clarity and for facilitating differential diagnosis justify putting to rest the familiar but now anachronistic term "organic mental disorders."

Humans

International reliability of a diagnostic intake procedure for panic disorder.

Test-retest diagnostic reliability interviews using the Upjohn version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III (SCID) were conducted with 72 patients at 13 international sites of the Cross-National Collaborative Panic Study. Agreement on the diagnosis of panic disorder was very good. For the subtypes (uncomplicated, with limited phobic avoidance, and agoraphobia), agreement was fair to good.

Adolescent

Crossing the border into borderline personality and borderline schizophrenia. The development of criteria.

Although there is a large psychiatric literature on various "borderline" conditions, there has been no agreement as to the definition of the concept. A review of the literature reviewed two major uses of the term: Borderline Schizophrenia and Borderline Personality. Two item sets were developed to provide diagnostic criteria for the two concepts. High sensitivity and specificity were demonstrated for both item sets using data describing 808 borderline and 808 control patients. These criteria will be used in the forthcoming DSM-III classification for the categories of Borderline Personality Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

Adolescent

Justification for separating schizotypal and borderline personality disorders.

Siever and Gunderson (1979) have questioned the decision to separate Schizotypal Personality Disorder from Borderline Personality Disorder in DSM-III. The justification for this separation rests not on genetic evidence, but rather on the relative independence of the behavioral characteristics of two dimensions that up to now have both been referred to with the appellation "borderline." We believe that this separation provides the tools with which investigators may usefully study the interaction of genetic and environmental factors as they relate to personality and the major psychiatric disorders. The benefits of this separation are already apparent in that research investigators are now using two terms to describe different phenomena, when previously they were using the single term borderline. Proposed diagnostic criteria for Schizotypal Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder are appended.

Chronic Disease

Use of the Research Diagnostic Criteria and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia to study affective disorders.

In a pilot study of 150 manic or depressive patients, the authors used the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and schizophrenia (SADS) to perform preliminary analysis of symptom pictures of the index episode of different diagnostic groups, joint diagnostic classification of the different subtypes of major depressive disorder, and differential outcome by diagnostic groups. The results suggest that schizophrenic symptoms in affective disorders do have diagnostic and prognostic significance, that the term "psychotic depression" should be limited to impaired reality testing without reference to degree of incapacitation, that situational-nonsituational and endogenous-nonendogenous classifications are separate depressive subtypes, and that it may not be true that patients with endogenous major depressive disorder have a better prognosis than patients with nonendogenous depression.

Adjustment Disorders

DSM-III field trials: I. Initial interrater diagnostic reliability.

The interrater agreement for major diagnostic categories in studies using DSM-I and DSM-II was usually only fair or poor. In phase one of the DSM-III field trials the overall kappa coefficient of agreement for axis I diagnoses of 281 adult patients was .78 for joint interviews and .66 for diagnoses made after separate interviews; for axis II--personality disorders and specific developmental disorders--the coefficients of agreement were .61 and .54. The interrater reliability of DSM--III is, in general, higher than that previously achieved and may be due to changes in the classification itself, the separation of axis I from axis II conditions, the systematic description of the various disorders, and the inclusion of diagnostic criteria.

Adolescent

DSM-III field trials: II. Initial experience with the multiaxial system.

The multiaxial system of DSM-III includes nondiagnostic data that are valuable in understanding possible etiological factors and in treatment planning and prognosis. The authors describe the reliability of axis IV--severity of psychosocial stressors--and axis V--highest level of adaptive functioning in the past year--for 281 adult patients interviewed in phase one of the DSM-III field trials. The kappa coefficient of agreement for axis IV was .62 for joint interviews and .58 for separate interviews, which the authors consider at least fair. Reliability for axis V was quite good, .80 for joint interviews and .69 for separate interviews. Eighty-one percent of the participating clinicians judged the multiaxial system to be a useful addition to traditional diagnostic evaluation, although many indicated that they had difficulty quantifying severity of psychosocial stressors.

Adolescent

Research diagnostic criteria: rationale and reliability.

A crucial problem in psychiatry, affecting clinical work as well as research, is the generally low reliability of current psychiatric diagnostic procedures. This article describes the development and initial reliability studies of a set of specific diagnostic criteria for a selected group of functional psychiatric disorders, the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC). The RDC are being widely used to study a variety of research issues, particularly those related to genetics, psychobiology of selected mental disorders, and treatment outcome. The data presented here indicate high reliability for diagnostic judgments made using these criteria.

Alcoholism

A diagnostic interview: the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia.

The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) was developed to reduce information variance in both the descriptive and diagnostic evaluation of a subject. The SADS is unique among rating scales in that it provides for (1) a detailed description of the features of the current episodes of illness when they were at their most severe; (2) a description of the level of severity of manifestations of major dimensions of psychopathology during the week preceding the evaluation, which can then be used as a measure of change; (3) a progression of questions and criteria, which provides information for making diagnoses; and (4) a detailed description of past psychopathology and functioning relevant to an evaluation of diagnosis, prognosis, and overall severity of disturbance. This article reports on initial scale development and reliability studies of the items and the scale scores.

Bipolar Disorder

Hysteria split asunder.

The authors present the proposed DSM-III classification of the traditional hysterical disorders, i.e., disorders that suggest physical illness but in which psychological factors are judged to be of importance. The use of the DSM-III inclusion and exclusion criteria--physical mechanism explains the symptoms, symptoms are linked to psychological factors, symptom initiation is under voluntary control, and there is an obvious recognizable environmental goal--are discussed in the differential diagnosis of somatoform disorder, factitious disorder, malingering, psychological factors affecting physical condition, and undiagnosed physical illness.

Conversion Disorder

A new method of classification for psychophysiologic disorders.

The authors suggest that there are a number of shortcomings in DSM-II's classification system for psychophysiologic disorders, which lists this group of disorders as a distinct group of diseases different from other organic diseases. They propose a new, multiaxial method of classification in which the clinician could indicate the role of psychological factors in the initiation, exacerbation, or maintenance of any physical disorder. This method would make it possible for the first time in psychiatric nomenclature to indicate a clinical judgment of the importance of psychological factors in all physical disorders rather than focusing on a small group of illnesses traditionally regarded as psychosomatic or psychophysiologic.

Humans