Validity of DSM‐III‐R diagnosis by psychological autopsy: a comparison with clinician ante‐mortem diagnosis
- 1 November 1996
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
- Vol. 94 (5), 337-343
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1996.tb09869.x
Abstract
Psychological autopsies are an important research tool in establishing risk factors associated with suicide. We report the results of a validity study comparing psychological autopsy-generated DSM-III-R diagnoses in suicides and non-suicides with chart diagnoses generated by clinicians who had treated the subjects prior to death. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Disorders (SCID-P) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SCID-II) were used to make independent post-mortem diagnoses. Comparison of research diagnoses with clinician ante-mortem diagnoses generated kappa coefficients of 0.85 for Axis I diagnoses and 0.65 for Axis II conditions. These kappa coefficients compare favourably with direct patient interview reliability studies. This provides evidence for the validity of the psychological autopsy as a method of determining psychiatric diagnosis.Keywords
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