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An introduction to computer diagnosis in psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Janice Morgan  and
Lester Sireling
Janice Morgan*
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital, London W2 1NY
Lester Sireling
Affiliation:
Barnet General Hospital, Barnet EN5 3DJ
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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The concept of computer diagnosis in medicine is not new. As early as 1971, a computer program was demonstrated to be more accurate than a senior clinician at diagnosing acute abdominal pain before surgery. In psychiatry, however, the problems surrounding diagnosis and classification are more complex than in other branches of medicine, depending as they do on the clinical interview and some agreed classificatory system in the absence of external validating criteria. Reliability has been improved by the application of standardised interview techniques and by the use of operationalised diagnostic criteria but such tools are lengthy and their use requires specialist training. Consequently they tend to be reserved for research purposes rather than routine clinical use. The potential contribution of computer technology to the vexed question of psychiatric diagnosis is here evaluated.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , February 1994 , pp. 73 - 74
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994

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