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Undiagnosed Psychiatric Patients

Part II: Follow-up Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Jay L. Liss
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.
Amos Welner
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.
Eli Robins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.

Extract

In a previous report records were studied of 256 in-patients who were discharged as undiagnosed, i.e. in-patients who at the time of discharge did not have a definable psychiatric illness (Welner, Liss, Robins and Richardson, 1972). In that study it was shown that when rigorous criteria for psychiatric research (Feighner, Robins, Guze, Woodruff, Winokur and Munoz, 1972) were used 68 per cent of these patients met the criteria for an established psychiatric disorder. It was concluded that: (1) The chart review diagnoses for a population of undiagnosed patients consisted of a variety of established psychiatric disorders and the population was not homogeneous. (The chart review diagnosis is a diagnosis obtained by review of the patients' hospital records and evaluating the information by using diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disorders.) (2) The most efficient way to arrive at a diagnosis was by structured rather than conventional narrative interview. This study is a follow-up study of these patients and attempts to evaluate the validity of the chart review diagnosis. A concordance between the chart review diagnosis and follow-up diagnosis supports the above conclusions. The follow-up study also served to establish diagnosis in patients who had too few symptoms initially to meet the criteria for a diagnosis.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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References

Feighner, J., Robins, E., Guze, S., Woodruff, R., Winokur, G., and Munoz, R. (1972). ‘Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research.’ Archives of General Psychiatry. 26, 5763.Google Scholar
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Welner, A., Liss, J., Robins, E., and Richardson, M. (1972). ‘Undiagnosed psychiatric potients. Part I: Record study.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 315–1.Google Scholar
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