The Validity of Psychiatric Diagnosis Revisited: The Clinician's Guide to Improve the Validity of Psychiatric Diagnosis.
BACKGROUND
The authors reviewed the types and phases of validity of psychiatric diagnosis. In 1970, Robins and Guze proposed five phases to achieve valid classification of mental disorders: clinical description, laboratory study, exclusion of other disorders, follow-up study, and family study.


OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this paper are to review what has been learned since Robins and Guze's influential article as well as examine the impact of the new discoveries in neurosciences and neuroimaging on the practicing clinician.


METHODS
The authors reviewed the literature on the concept of validity in psychiatry with emphasis on the role of clinical training, the use of structured interviews and rating scales, and the importance of the new discoveries in neurosciences.


RESULTS
Robins and Guze's phases have been the cornerstone of construct validity in psychiatry at the level of researchers. In the absence of the gold standard of psychiatric diagnosis, Spitzer proposed the "LEAD," which is an acronym for longitudinal evaluation, and is done by expert clinicians utilizing all the data available. The LEAD standard is construct validity at the level of experts; however, guidelines are lacking to improve the validity skills of the practicing clinicians.


CONCLUSIONS
The authors propose the acronym DR.SEE, which stands for data, reference definitions, rating scales, clinical experience, and external validators. The authors recommend that clinicians use the DR.SEE paradigm to improve the validity of psychiatric diagnoses.
All from Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Ahmed
A
Aboraya
Cheryl
C
France
John
J
Young
Kristina
K
Curci
James
J
Lepage