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On Evaluating the Severity of Depression: An Experimental Study of Psychiatrists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Hans-Ueli Fisch ,
Kenneth R. Hammond  and
C. R. B. Joyce
Hans-Ueli Fisch
Affiliation:
Research and Teaching, Psychiatrische Poliklinik, University of Bern, Murtenstrasse 21, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland
Kenneth R. Hammond
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA
C. R. B. Joyce
Affiliation:
Project Innovation Group, Medical Department, CIBA-GEIGY Limited, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
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Summary

This study extends earlier work on the evaluation of depression by general physicians, and compares the results obtained with that group with those from a group of experienced psychiatrists. Differences within each group were larger than those between them. In neither group were individuals able to describe their own diagnostic processes with great accuracy, but psychiatrists were, as expected, somewhat more consistent than general physicians. They became even more so when allowed to select their own cues; of which, however, they made use of a smaller number. These tended to be of a specific rather than (as with the physicians) of a general nature.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 140 , Issue 4 , April 1982 , pp. 378 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

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