title: A comparative study of posttraumatic stress disorder assessment under standard conditions and in the field.
abstract: Little is known about the performance of clinician-administered structured diagnostic interviews when given under variable levels of examiner training and monitoring. We sought to explore this question. We examined the performance of a self-report questionnaire and a structured clinical interview in the assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in two community samples of war veterans. One sample was interviewed under standard conditions (N = 372) and the other under unknown and less standardized conditions (N = 420), more closely approximating 'field conditions'. Interview results were used to predict questionnaire-based PTSD status. Kappas, sensitivities, specificities, and positive predictive powers were moderate and of similar magnitude in both samples. Our results suggest that even under uncertain ('field') conditions, clinician-administered structured interviews can produce results comparable to those produced under more tightly controlled conditions.
authors.affiliation: Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, One Veterans Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Erbes
authors.forename: Thomas N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Dikel
authors.forename: Raina E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Eberly
authors.forename: William F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Page
authors.forename: Brian E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Engdahl
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003130:Combat Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology; D011361:Professional Competence; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012931:Social Environment; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*