This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Comparison With Physician Examiners

John E. Helzer, MD; Edward L. Spitznagel, PhD; Larry McEvoy, MA

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1987;44(12):1069-1077.

Abstract
• A clinical reexamination by psychiatrists is a useful comparison for exploring lay Diagnostic Interview Schedule—derived psychiatric diagnoses in general population surveys, but as a validity standard psychiatric reexamination is less than ideal. There are many potential sources of disagreement that have nothing to do with the validity of either the lay or the psychiatrist examination. Another approach to comparing lay and psychiatrist diagnoses is to examine their relative predictive power. We describe such a comparison using outcome variables derived from the one-year follow-up examination of Epidemiologic Catchment Area respondents done at the St Louis site. We examine several outcome variables across nine diagnostic categories. Within the limits of the available data, lay and psychiatrist diagnoses appear to be essentially equal in terms of the number of outcomes better predicted, and few of the differences in predictive power approach statistical significance. We discuss the implications of these findings for the analysis of lay interviewer Diagnostic Interview Schedule—derived diagnoses.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis (Dr Helzer and Mr McEvoy), and the Department of Mathematics and Division of Biostatistics, Washington University, St Louis (Dr Spitznagel).

Footnotes
Accepted for publication April 27, 1987.

Reprint requests to the Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Ave, St Louis, MO 63110 (Dr Helzer).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Male Gulf War Veterans and Civilians: A Further Test of the Single Syndrome Hypothesis
Ciccone et al.
J Health Psychol 2008;13:529-536.
ABSTRACT  

A Descriptive and Comparative Study of the Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Disorders in Low-Income Adults With Type 2 Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses
Thomas et al.
Diabetes Care 2003;26:2311-2317.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Narratives of Somatizing and Non somatizing Patients in a Primary Care Setting
Elderkin-Thompson et al.
J Health Psychol 1998;3:407-428.
ABSTRACT  

Diagnosing Personality Disorders: A Review of Issues and Research Methods
Zimmerman
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1994;51:225-245.
ABSTRACT  

Causes of Persistent Dizziness: A Prospective Study of 100 Patients in Ambulatory Care
Kroenke et al.
ANN INTERN MED 1992;117:898-904.
ABSTRACT  

An Intriguing Association Between Ancestral Mortality and Male Affective Disorder
Vaillant et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1992;49:709-715.
ABSTRACT  

Screening for Alcohol Abuse Using CAGE Scores and Likelihood Ratios
Buchsbaum et al.
ANN INTERN MED 1991;115:774-777.
ABSTRACT  

Epidemiologic Study of Sleep Disturbances and Psychiatric Disorders: An Opportunity for Prevention?
Ford and Kamerow
JAMA 1989;262:1479-1484.
ABSTRACT  

The Composite International Diagnostic Interview: An Epidemiologic Instrument Suitable for Use in Conjunction With Different Diagnostic Systems and in Different Cultures
Robins et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1988;45:1069-1077.
ABSTRACT