The purpose of this prospective, naturalistic study was to examine the relationships between suicide attempts and contemporaneous psychiatric disorders, and developmental changes in these relationships from adolescence to young adulthood. The sample consisted of 180 adolescents, 12-19 years of age at hospitalization, repeatedly assessed for up to…

Several studies have documented low rates of agreement between clinician- and researcher-generated diagnoses. However, little is known about whether this lack of agreement has implications for the processes and outcomes of subsequent treatment. To study this possibility, the authors used diagnostic agreement to predict therapy engagement and…

This study investigated a new 2-factor construct, termed "cultural congruence", which is related to cultural competence in the delivery of mental health services to ethnic minority clients. Cultural congruence was defined as the distance between the cultural competence characteristics of the health care organization and the clients' perception of…

Developed empirically based criteria for use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to aid in the assessment and diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in patients (N=200). Analysis based on an empircally derived decision rule correctly classified 74 percent of the patients in each group. (LLL)

Instructed preadolescents to "fake bad" on comprehensive neuropsychological testing, then had cases reviewed by 42 clinical neuropsychologists. Ninety-three percent of reviewers diagnosed abnormality, most attributing results to cortical dysfunction; no clinician detected malingering. Results are consistent with other studies exploring…

Discriminated three groups of neuropsychiatric outpatients (N=138) using a measure of aggression formed by summing subscales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Results indicated that the group differences cannot be attributed to more general factors such as age, sex, education, IQ or degree of overall psychopathology. (LLL)

Examined the influence of premilitary adjustment, military adjustment, and combat experience on the development of posttraumatic stress disorder in 43 Vietnam veterans. Results showed combat exposure was the most significant predictor, followed by military adjustment. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory appeared to offer promise for…

Reports three reliability coefficients for the Beck Depression Inventory using samples of elderly community volunteers and depressed outpatients. All three indexes were reasonably high in the total sample and fall within the accepted range of reliability for a clinical screening instrument. (Author)

Reviews the application of epidemiology to alcoholism. Discusses measurement and diagnostic issues and reviews studies of the prevalence of alcoholism, its risk factors, and the contributions of epidemiology to our knowledge of treatment and prevention. (Author/KS)

Assessed children of patients with anxiety disorders using self-report inventories and a semistructured interview schedule. They were more anxious and fearful, reported more school difficulties and worries about family members and themselves, had more somatic complaints, spent more time engaged in solitary activities than children in two normal…

Demonstrates the consequences on total misdiagnosis rates of using conventional (fixed) rather than flexible (Bayesian) rules when using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in diagnosis. Concludes that the range of base rates and the separation of distributions of normal and abnormal scores affect the difference in the misdiagnosis…

The present study reports the responses to a questionnaire secured from 80 approved internship centers on various aspects of training in diagnostic testing. A majority of the centers believe that university training is inadequate, and a number of them perceive the university as instilling an overly critical attitude toward diagnostic testing in…

Differences in proportion of Negroes versus Caucasians receiving schizophrenic, alcoholic, and depressive psychiatric diagnoses were found. No significant race-related main effects were found on the nine Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) clinical scales. Results are discussed in terms of education having an inculturating effect on…

Examined the congruence between conventional cutoff scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and selected diagnostic classifications of the Research Diagnostic Criteria in a sample of 102 elders seeking psychological treatment. Findings supported the utility of the BDI as a screening instrument for identification of clinically depressed…