title: Construction of a screening inventory for major mental disorder in the Army.
abstract: The development of a 29-item self-report inventory to screen for non-adaptiveness with an episode or a history of major mental disorder in the army is described. Initially, a 58-item inventory was constructed. However, through a pilot study 46 items remained. The reliability and validity test of the 46-item inventory was then carried out on 357 patients and 126 controls. Firstly, item analyses were performed which showed 12 items that distinguished between schizophrenic patients and controls, 9 items that distinguished between depressive patients and controls and 8 items that distinguished between manic patients and controls. A final 29-item inventory was found to have satisfactory reliability, sensitivity and specificity. The analyses of the best cut-off scores using the receiver-operating-characteristic curve suggested a score of 3 for the Schizophrenia Scale, 2 for the Depression Scale, and 3 for the Mania Scale. The inventory can be completed in about 5 to 10 minutes and has a simple method of scoring. The use of this screening inventory in the army is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Psychiatry Medical College, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan ROC.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Shyu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008889:Military Personnel; D008890:Military Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology