title: The development and validation of static and adaptive screeners to measure the severity of panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
abstract: A series of static and adaptive screeners for panic disorder, social anxiety disorder (SAD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) were developed and compared using data-driven methods to facilitate the measurement of each disorder in community samples. Data comprised 3175 respondents for the development sample and 3755 respondents for the validation sample, recruited independently using Facebook advertising. Item Response Theory (IRT) was utilized to develop static continuous screeners and to simulate computerized adaptive algorithms. The screeners consisted of a small subset of items from each bank (79% reduction in items for panic disorder, 85% reduction in items for SAD, and 84% reduction in items for OCD) that provided similar scores (r = 0.88-0.96). Both static and adaptive screeners were valid with respect to existing scales that purportedly measure similar constructs (r > 0.70 for panic disorder, r > 0.76 for SAD, and r > 0.68 for OCD). The adaptive scales were able to maintain a higher level of precision in comparison to the static scales and evidenced slightly higher concordance with scores generated by the full item banks. The screeners for panic disorder, SAD, and OCD could be used as a flexible approach to measure and monitor the severity of psychopathology in tailored treatment protocols.
authors.affiliation: NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Australia, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8452-364X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sunderland
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4547-6876
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Batterham
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Alison L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Calear
authors.affiliation: Office of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Australia, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Natacha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carragher
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000072861:Phobia, Social / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: IRT; adaptive testing; obsessive compulsive disorder; panic disorder; screening; social anxiety