Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Feb:31:351-5.
doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.10.001. Epub 2013 Nov 12.

How do we measure psychiatric diagnoses? Implications of the choice of instruments in epilepsy

Dale C Hesdorffer  1 , Elisa Baldin  2 , Rochelle Caplan  3 , Anne T Berg  4
Affiliations

How do we measure psychiatric diagnoses? Implications of the choice of instruments in epilepsy

Dale C Hesdorffer et al. Epilepsy Behav. 2014 Feb.

Abstract

We evaluated several commonly used screening instruments for the detection of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These were compared to a criterion-based standardized questionnaire, the Diagnostic Interview Survey (DIS)-IV, designed to make DSM-IV-TR diagnoses in the community-based study of childhood-onset epilepsy. The DIS-IV was administered to young adult cases with epilepsy at a 15-year follow-up assessment and compared to symptom screens administered at the same visit, and at a previous 9-year assessment. Among cases, the specificity of the DIS-IV ranged from 0.77 to 0.99 and the predictive value of a negative psychiatric diagnosis was similarly high. Sensitivity was lower, ranging from 0 to 0.77, with correspondingly low predictive value of a positive diagnosis. Symptom-based instruments assess current symptom burden and are useful for determining associations with ongoing seizures or quality of life. Criterion-based standardized interviews, such as the DIS-IV, provide psychiatric diagnoses over the lifetime, which is most useful in studies of epilepsy genetics and studies of comorbidities and prognosis of epilepsy.

Keywords: Epilepsy; Prevalence; Psychiatric disorders; Screening instruments; Validity.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Tellez-Zenteno JF, Patten SB, Jette N, Williams J, Wiebe S. Psychiatric comorbidity in epilepsy: a population-based analysis. Epilepsia. 2007;48:2336–44. - PubMed
    1. Hesdorffer DC, Ishihara L, Maynepalli L, Webb DJ, Weil J, Hauser WA. Epilepsy, suicidality, and psychiatric disorders: A bidirectional association. Ann Neurol. 2012 - PubMed
    1. Robins L, Cottler L, Bucholz K, Compton W. Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (DIS-IV) St. Louis: Washington University School of Medicine; 1997.
    1. Ambrosini PJ. Historical development and present status of the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children (K-SADS) J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2000;39:49–58. - PubMed
    1. Ventura J, Liberman RP, Green MF, Shaner A, Mintz J. Training and quality assurance with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I/P) Psychiatry Res. 1998;79:163–73. - PubMed

Publication types