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R. E. Kendell, MD, FRCP, FRCPsych

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1982;39(11):1334-1339.

Abstract
• The need for operational definitions of psychiatric syndromes is now widely accepted, and their use has improved reliability considerably. However, the existence of numerous competing definitions of several of the major syndromes and political pressures to use particular definitions highlight our lack of adequate criteria of validity. One reason why it is difficult to decide where the boundaries of individual syndromes should best be drawn is that we have largely failed to demonstrate discontinuities or "points of rarity" between related syndromes. The considerations that ought to govern the choice between competing definitions in this situation are discussed, and it is suggested that the best research strategy at present may be to use two or three alternative definitions simultaneously.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh and Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication June 1, 1982.

Read before the World Congress of Biological Psychiatry, Stockholm, June 28,1981, and published in a shorter form in Biological Psychiatry 1981 (Amsterdam, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomédical Press, 1981).

Reprint requests to University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland EH10 5HF (Dr Kendell).

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