Fourteen state prison inmates were evaluated using a structured diagnostic interview, the Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (PDI), by one of two staff psychologists. These subjects were then re-interviewed with the PDI by an outside psychologist from 14 to 29 (M = 16.7) weeks later. A third PDI interview was conducted by the same staff psychologist who administered the first PDL This third interview took place .5 to 1.6 (M = 1.1) weeks after the second interview. Interrater agreement varied little as afunction of time (16.7 vs 1.1 weeks) or rater (staff vs outside psychologist) and was slightly higher for Lifetime diagnosis (K =.58 to .72) than it was for Current diagnosis (K =.46 to.56).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Andreason, N. , Grove, W., Shapiro, R., et al. (1981). Reliability of Lifetime Diagnosis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 400-405.
2.
Andreason, N. , McDonald-Scott, P., Grove, W., et al. (1981). Assessment Reliability in Multi-Center Collaborative Research Using a Videotape Approach. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 876-882.
3.
Cohen, J. (1960). A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37-46.
4.
Endicott, J. , and Spitzer, R. (1978). A Diagnostic Interview: The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837-844.
5.
Feighner, J. , Robins, E., Guze, S., Woodruff, R., Winokur, G., and Munoz, R. (1972). Diagnostic Criteria for Use in Psychiatric Research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57-63.
6.
Helzer, J. , Clayton, P., Pambakian, R, Reich, T., Woodruff, R., and Reveley, M. (1977). Reliability of Psychiatric Diagnosis: II. The Test/Retest Reliability of Diagnostic Classification. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 129-133.
7.
Hostetter, A. , Egeland, J. and Endicott, J. (1983). Amish Study II: Consensus Diagnoses and Reliability Results. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 62-66.
8.
Keller, M. , Lavori,, P., Andreason, N. et al. (1981). Test-Retest Reliability of Assessing Psychiatrically Ill Patients in a Multi-Center Design. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 213-227 (a).
9.
Keller, M. , Lavori, P., McDonald-Scott, P. et al. (1981). Reliability of Lifetime Diagnosis and Symptoms in Patients with Current Psychiatric Disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 16, 229-240 (b).
10.
Mazure, C. and Gershon, E. (1979). Blindness and Reliability in Lifetime Psychiatric Diagnosis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 521-525.
11.
Othmer, E. , Penick, E., and Powell, B. (1981). Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (PDI) manual. Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles.
12.
Spiker, D. , and Ehler, J. (1984). Structured Psychiatric Interviews for Adults. In G. Goldstein and M. Hersen (Eds.) Handbook of Psychological Assessment. Pergamon Press, New York.
13.
Wing, J. , Cooper, J., and Sartorius, N. (1974). The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
