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A Comparative Validation of the Foulds and Bedford Hierarchy of Psychiatric Symptomatology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Leslie C. Morey
Leslie C. Morey*
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine
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Summary

This study investigated the validity of the Fould & Bedford hierarchical model of psychiatric illness, as compared to hierarchical models based upon prevalence and severity of disorder. The DSSI was administered to 52 American psychiatric in-patients with severe disturbances. The reports of symptoms in this sample conformed to the Foulds hierarchy in 90% of cases, while 94% of cases conformed to a model based upon prevalence. When a cross-method validation was investigated, the Foulds & Bedford classification demonstrated good discriminative capacity, while models based upon prevalence and severity failed to achieve significance. These results suggest that the Foulds & Bedford model is a useful taxonomy of symptomatology in psychiatric illness.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 146 , Issue 4 , April 1985 , pp. 424 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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