title: Psychiatric diagnostic interviews for children and adolescents: a comparative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare examples of three styles of psychiatric interviews for youth: the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) ("respondent-based"), the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA) ("interviewer-based"), and the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) ("expert judgment").
  
  
  METHODS
  Roughly equal numbers of males and females of white and African American ethnicity, aged 9 to 12 and 13 to 16 years, were recruited from primary care pediatric clinics. Participants (N = 646) were randomly assigned to receive two of the three interviews, in counterbalanced order. Five modules were used: any depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. At two sessions about 1 week apart, parent and child completed one of two interviews plus five screening questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When interviewed with the DAWBA, 17.7% of youth had one or more diagnoses, compared with 47.1% (DISC) and 32.4% (CAPA). The excess of DISC diagnoses was accounted for by specific phobias. Agreement between interview pairs was 0.13 to 0.48 for DAWBA-DISC comparisons, 0.21 to 0.61 for DISC-CAPA comparisons, and 0.23 to 0.48 for CAPA-DAWBA comparisons. DAWBA-only cases were associated with higher parent-report questionnaire scores than DISC/DAWBA cases, but equivalent child-report scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The DAWBA is shorter and cases were probably more severe, making it a good choice for clinical trials, but the user cannot examine the data in detail. The DISC and CAPA are similar in length and training needs. Either would be a better choice where false-negative results must be avoided, as in case-control genetic studies, or when researchers need to study individual symptoms in detail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Box 3454 Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC 27710, USA. adrian.angold@duke.edu
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Angold
authors.forename: Alaattin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Erkanli
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Copeland
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Prudence W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: E Jane
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Costello
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D015588:Observer Variation; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires