Evaluation in an inpatient setting of DTREE, a computer-assisted diagnostic assessment procedure.
This study examined the procedural validity of DTREE, a microcomputer-based expert system that guides the user through the diagnostic logic of DSM-III-R. A DTREE-guided DSM-III-R diagnosis of 20 inpatients (made by the treating clinician) was compared with a "standard" diagnosis made simultaneously during a weekly 2-hour case conference consisting of a presentation by the treating clinician and other staff, a chart summary, and the administration of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID), and culminating in a group consensus diagnosis. The kappa agreements were .80 for schizophrenia (N = 10), .83 for major depression (N = 3), and -.08 to 1.00 for other disorders. These results suggest that DTREE can produce valid assessments, at least in an acute setting of primarily patients with schizophrenia.
First
M B
MB
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY.
Opler
L A
LA
Hamilton
R M
RM
Linder
J
J
Linfield
L S
LS
Silver
J M
JM
Toshav
N L
NL
Kahn
D
D
Williams
J B
JB
Spitzer
R L
RL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education; D012984:Software