TY - JOUR
T1 - The reliability of psychiatric and psychological diagnosis
AU - Matarazzo, Joseph D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Investigators working in the same general area but located in different settings frequently pool their talents and produce a product neither could have produced alone. With federally funded support from an NIMH grant to study the psychobiology of depression, psychiatrist Spitzer and psychologist Endicott and their colleagues at the New York State Psychiatric Institute were able to join forces in furthering research on the reliability and validity of psychiatric diagnosis with Robins in St. Louis, as well as with colleagues at the Harvard and Iowa medical schools. Together, these collaborators produced by 1977 two important research and clinical tools: (1) a manual of Research Diqgno&c Criteria consisting of explicit, relatively easy to utilize operational definitions of 25 psychiatric disorders, many
PY - 1983
Y1 - 1983
N2 - Experience suggests that many psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as most attorneys, judges, and other individuals whose work requires a knowledge of the extent of the reliability of psychologic and psychiatric diagnosis are not aware that recent research has dramatically influenced the conclusions one may draw in regard to the fallability of such human judgments. The purpose here is to provide a brief introduction of the history of such diagnostic judgments from the time of the early Greek philosophers through the decade of the 1960's. This will be followed by a review of a series of important studies from several research centers which were published during the past decade and which presented the first robust evidence that such clinician-to-clinician diagnoses have now attained remarkably high levels of reliability. In the last section, studies will be reviewed which show that the concurrent development of standardized interview schedules now allow layperson interviewers to achieve levels of reliability for psychiatric and psychologic interviews which are comparable to the high levels now attainable by mental health professionals.
AB - Experience suggests that many psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as most attorneys, judges, and other individuals whose work requires a knowledge of the extent of the reliability of psychologic and psychiatric diagnosis are not aware that recent research has dramatically influenced the conclusions one may draw in regard to the fallability of such human judgments. The purpose here is to provide a brief introduction of the history of such diagnostic judgments from the time of the early Greek philosophers through the decade of the 1960's. This will be followed by a review of a series of important studies from several research centers which were published during the past decade and which presented the first robust evidence that such clinician-to-clinician diagnoses have now attained remarkably high levels of reliability. In the last section, studies will be reviewed which show that the concurrent development of standardized interview schedules now allow layperson interviewers to achieve levels of reliability for psychiatric and psychologic interviews which are comparable to the high levels now attainable by mental health professionals.
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U2 - 10.1016/0272-7358(83)90008-9
DO - 10.1016/0272-7358(83)90008-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001184628
SN - 0272-7358
VL - 3
SP - 103
EP - 145
JO - Clinical Psychology Review
JF - Clinical Psychology Review
IS - 1
ER -