RELIABILITY OF DIAGNOSIS ABNORM – NORMS AND DIAGNOSIS #2 – LESSON #2

RELIABILITY Whether the same disorder is diagnosed every time. Inter-rater reliability: whether different diagnosticians get the same diagnosis. ie. how objective the diagnostic criteria is. Test-retest: whether repeating the diagnosis will give a different result between each time.

COOPER ET AL. – NEW YORK LONDON DIAGNOSIS Description - An identical video clip of a patient was shown to psychiatrists from New York and London. Findings Psychiatrists from New York had a higher likelihood of diagnosing schizophrenia. Psychiatrists from London were more likely to diagnose mania or depression.

BECK – PSYCHIATRISTS AGREEMENT Description - Agreement between two psychiatrists on diagnosis for 153 patients was 54%. The was due to the vagueness in criteria for diagnosis and; The different process for diagnosis.

DI NARDO (1993): Two clinicians separately diagnosed 267 people seeking treatment for anxiety and stress disorders. They found higher reliability for obsessive compulsive disorder but lower reliability for major depression