Using consensus OPCRIT diagnoses. An efficient procedure for best-estimate lifetime diagnoses.
BACKGROUND
The Operational Criteria Checklist (OPCRIT) generates diagnoses according to 12 operational diagnostic systems (e.g. DSM-III, DSM-III-R, Research Diagnostic Criteria, ICD-10).


OBJECTIVE
To examine the agreement between diagnoses generated by the OPCRIT, as completed by the interviewer, with a best-estimate lifetime procedure using the OPCRIT.


METHODS
Subjects came from large multi-generational bipolar or schizophrenia pedigrees (n = 100), and from a sample of unrelated subjects with schizophrenia (n = 40). We analysed the diagnostic agreement between OPCRIT diagnoses generated by the interviewer and our best-estimate OPCRIT diagnoses, according to DSM-III-R and ICD-10, using Cohen kappa statistics.


RESULTS
Excellent agreement was found between interviewer OPCRIT diagnoses and OPCRIT diagnoses made by the best-estimate lifetime consensus procedure for DSM-III-R (kappa = 0.83) and ICD-10 (kappa = 0.81).


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that this procedure for diagnostic assessment is an efficient alternative to classic best-estimate diagnosis procedures.
Azevedo
M H
MH
Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Coimbra University, Portugal. helenamh@ci.uc.pt
Soares
M J
MJ
Coelho
I
I
Dourado
A
A
Valente
J
J
Macedo
A
A
Pato
M
M
Pato
C
C
D000465:Algorithms; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity