A statistic for describing the reliability of clinical profiles is described. Videotaped interviews are utilized to hold day-to-day variability constant, permitting the evaluation of rater-specific errors. The stability of clinicians' conceptions of the pathology associated with “typical” patients representing various diagnostic categories was evaluated. Even when rater-specific variance is averaged out, patients' observed pathology does not match well with the profile of pathology ascribed to the diagnostic group to which the patient has been clinically assigned.
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