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Further studies on interviewer training and inter-rater reliability of the Present State Examination (PSE)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

J. E. Cooper*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatryand the Department of Sociology, Bedford College, London
J. R. M. Copeland
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatryand the Department of Sociology, Bedford College, London
G. W. Brown
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatryand the Department of Sociology, Bedford College, London
T. Harris
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatryand the Department of Sociology, Bedford College, London
A. J. Gourlay
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatryand the Department of Sociology, Bedford College, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor J. E. Cooper, Nottingham University Department of Psychiatry, Mapperley Hospital, Porchester Road, Nottingham.

Synopsis

The Present State Examination (PSE) is discussed with regard to its use in surveys of subjects who are not psychiatric patients. Although the PSE was originally developed for use by psychiatrists with patients with obvious mental illness, the interview also contains sections dealing in considerable detail with the commoner and less severe complaints and symptoms that are found in a significant proportion of ‘normal subjects’. A shortened version of the PSE (8th edition) is described, limited to these sections, which has been used in population surveys, by interviewers who are not psychiatrists. The training of such interviewers is described, and information on a reliability and repeatability study is presented. This shows that with proper training, non-psychiatric interviewers can achieve standards of inter-rater reliability that are comparable to those previously reported between psychiatrists.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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