title: Concordance of DSM-IV Axis I and II diagnoses by personal and informant's interview.
abstract: The validity and reliability of using psychological autopsies to diagnose a psychiatric disorder is a critical issue. Therefore, interrater and test-retest reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I and Personality Disorders and the usefulness of these instruments for the psychological autopsy method were investigated. Diagnoses by informant's interview were compared with diagnoses generated by a personal interview of 35 persons. Interrater reliability and test-retest reliability were assessed in 33 and 29 persons, respectively. Chi-square analysis, kappa and intraclass correlation coefficients, and Kendall's tau were used to determine agreement of diagnoses. Kappa coefficients were above 0.84 for substance-related disorders, mood disorders, and anxiety and adjustment disorders, and above 0.65 for Axis II disorders for interrater and test-retest reliability. Agreement by personal and relative's interview generated kappa coefficients above 0.79 for most Axis I and above 0.65 for most personality disorder diagnoses; Kendall's tau for dimensional individual personality disorder scores ranged from 0.22 to 0.72. Despite of a small number of psychiatric disorders in the selected population, the present results provide support for the validity of most diagnoses obtained through the best-estimate method using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I and Personality Disorders. This instrument can be recommended as a tool for the psychological autopsy procedure in post-mortem research.
authors.affiliation: Center of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy I, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main, Heinrich-Hoffmann-Str. 10, D-60528 Frankfurt/Main, Germany. B.Schneider@em.uni-frankfurt.de
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maurer
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sargk
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heiskel
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frölich
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Georgi
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fritze
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seidler
mesh_terms: D000275:Adjustment Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data