title: Turing's game and the clinical significance of outcome with borderline patients at a day hospital.
abstract: Clinical significance of a treatment effect is indicated when a treated patient, after discharge, cannot be distinguished clinically from a person who is functioning on some criterion level in terms of adjustment and normality. This principle is demonstrated in a questionnaire follow-up of patients at a day hospital. Defining the criterion level, a sex- and age-matched nonpatient group completed the same questionnaire. On the basis of the questionnaires, four judges independently guessed whether or not each respondent was an ex-patient. The agreement among the judges was high, and their classification agreed with that of a discriminant analysis in eventually declaring approximately 25% of the patients to be nonpatients. A simple model was proposed to account for the judges' performance.
authors.affiliation: Stockholm County Council Psychotherapy Institute, Sweden.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sandell
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alfredsson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Crafoord
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lagerlöf
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rugolska
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D015984:Causality; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome