Screening for principal versus comorbid conditions in psychiatric outpatients with the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire

Psychol Assess. 2003 Mar;15(1):110-4. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.15.1.110.

Abstract

In examining the performance of screening scales, a distinction should be made between principal and additional diagnoses. The Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) is a brief, psychometrically strong self-report scale designed to screen for the most common Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed; DSM-IV) Axis I disorders encountered in outpatient mental health settings. In the present report, the authors compared the performance of the PDSQ in identifying principal and comorbid disorders. Seven hundred ninety-nine psychiatric outpatients completed the PDSQ and were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. The sensitivity and negative predictive values of the PDSQ subscales were similar for principal and additional diagnoses.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Ambulatory Care
  • Comorbidity
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Mental Disorders / epidemiology
  • Mental Disorders / therapy
  • Middle Aged
  • ROC Curve
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Somatoform Disorders / diagnosis
  • Somatoform Disorders / epidemiology
  • Somatoform Disorders / therapy
  • Surveys and Questionnaires*