title: On the validity of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire: a comparison of diagnostic self-ratings in psychiatric out-patients, general practice patients, and 'normals' based on the Hebrew version.
abstract: The short clinical diagnostic self-rating scale for psycho-neurotic patients (The Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire) was translated into everyday Hebrew and tested on 216 subjects for: (1) concurrent validity with clinical diagnoses; (2) discriminatory validity on a psychoneurotic gradient of psychiatric out-patients, general practice patients, and normal controls; (3) validity of subscales and discrete items using matrices of Spearman rank correlation coefficients; (4) construct validity using Guttman's smallest space analysis based on coefficients of similarity. The Hebrew MHQ was found to retain its validity and to be easily applicable in waiting-room situations. It is a useful method for generating and substantiating hypotheses on psychosomatic and psychosocial interrelationships. The MHQ seems to enable the expression of the 'neurotic load' of a general practice subpopulation as a centile on a scale, thereby corroborating previous epidemiological findings on the high prevalence of neurotic illness in general practice. There is reason to believe that the MHQ is a valid instrument for the analysis of symptom profiles of subjects involved in future drug trials.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000175:diagnosis; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis