The psychotic spectrum: validity and reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for the Psychotic Spectrum

• Published in: Schizophrenia research Vol. 75; no. 2; pp. 375 - 387
• Main Authors: Sbrana, A., Dell'Osso, L., Benvenuti, A., Rucci, P., Cassano, P., Banti, S., Gonnelli, C., Doria, M.R., Ravani, L., Spagnolli, S., Rossi, L., Raimondi, F., Catena, M., Endicott, J., Frank, E., Kupfer, D.J., Cassano, G.B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15-06-2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Borderline; Borderline Personality Disorder - diagnosis; Borderline Personality Disorder - psychology; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Humans; Interview, Psychological; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mood; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychotic; Psychotic Disorders - diagnosis; Psychotic Disorders - psychology; Questionnaire; Reproducibility of Results; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenic Psychology; Spectrum; Surveys and Questionnaires; Techniques and methods; Schizophrenia; Psychotic; Questionnaire; Borderline; Mood; Spectrum; Human; Mood disorder; Psychometrics; Test reliability; Psychosis; Test validation; Clinical interview
• ISSN: 0920-9964; 1573-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2004.09.016

This study evaluates the validity and the reliability of a new instrument developed to assess the psychotic spectrum: the Structured Clinical Interview for the Psychotic Spectrum (SCI-PSY). The instrument is based on a spectrum model that emphasizes soft signs, low-grade symptoms, subthreshold syndromes, as well as temperamental and personality traits comprising the clinical and subsyndromal psychotic manifestations. The items of the interview include, in addition to a subset of the DSM-IV criteria for psychotic syndromes, a number of features derived from clinical experience and from a review of the phenomenological descriptions of psychoses. Study participants were enrolled at 11 Italian Departments of Psychiatry located at 9 sites and included 77 consecutive patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, 66 with borderline personality disorder, 59 with psychotic mood disorders, 98 with non-psychotic mood disorders and 57 with panic disorder. A comparison group of 102 unselected controls was enrolled at the same sites. The SCI-PSY significantly discriminated subjects with any psychiatric diagnosis from controls and subjects with from those without psychotic disorders. The hypothesized structure of the instrument was confirmed empirically.