Informant disagreement for separation anxiety disorder.
OBJECTIVE
To characterize informant disagreement for separation anxiety disorder (SAD).


METHODS
The sample comprised 2,779 8- to 17-year-old twins from a community-based registry. Children and their parents completed a personal interview about the child's psychiatric history. Parents completed a personal interview about their own psychiatric history and a questionnaire about their marital relationship.


RESULTS
Informant agreement for SAD ranged between chance and extremely poor. Most cases of SAD were diagnosed by interview with only one informant. SAD diagnosed only by child interview was associated with an increased odds of father-rated oppositional defiant disorder, and vice versa. SAD diagnosed only by parent interview was predicted by the parental informant's history of antisocial personality disorder. SAD diagnosed only by paternal interview was also predicted by mother-rated marital conflict and dissatisfaction.


CONCLUSIONS
Parents and children rarely agree about the presence of any level of child separation anxiety. A symptom "or-rule" mostly indexes diagnoses based on interview with only one informant, but the relative validity of such diagnoses remains unclear.
Foley
Debra
D
Human Genetics Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23298-0003, USA. dfoley@hsc.vcu.edu
Rutter
Michael
M
Pickles
Andrew
A
Angold
Adrian
A
Maes
Hermine
H
Silberg
Judy
J
Eaves
Lindon
L
D000293:Adolescent; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D015588:Observer Variation; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014768:Virginia / Q000453:epidemiology