title: Identifying chronic affective disorders in outpatients: validation of the General Behavior Inventory.
abstract: The validity of the General Behavior Inventory (GBI) in screening outpatients for chronic unipolar and bipolar affective conditions was evaluated. The GBI was administered to 492 consecutive patients at a university clinic and a community mental health center. Using a stratified random sampling plan, 167 patients were selected and administered blind structured diagnostic interviews. In addition, unipolar depressives were followed up 6 months after the initial evaluation. Overall, the GBI exhibited fair-to-good positive predictive power and good-to-excellent negative predictive power. In addition, GBI scores in the case range were consistently associated with poor outcome at the 6-month follow-up. These findings suggest that the GBI may provide an economical means of screening for chronic unipolar and bipolar affective conditions in outpatient settings.
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dickstein
authors.forename: E B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harding
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics