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The Value of Four Mental Health Self-Report Scales in Predicting Interview-Based Mood and Anxiety Disorder Diagnoses in Sibling Pairs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Richard J. Williamson*
Affiliation:
MRC, SGDP, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom. [email protected]
Benjamin M. Neale
Affiliation:
MRC, SGDP, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Abram Sterne
Affiliation:
MRC, SGDP, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Martin Prince
Affiliation:
MRC, SGDP, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Pak Sham
Affiliation:
MRC, SGDP, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
*
*Address for correspondence: Richard Williamson, MRC, SGDP, PO80, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK.

Abstract

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Questionnaire-based dimensional measures are often employed in epidemiological studies to predict the presence of psychiatric disorders. The present study sought to determine how accurately 4 dimensional mental health measures, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Neuroticism (EPQ-N), the high positive affect and anxious arousal scales from the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (MASQ-HPA and MASQ-AA) and a composite of all 4, predicted psychiatric caseness as diagnosed by the University of Michigan Composite International Diagnostic Interview (UM-CIDI). Community subjects were recruited through general practitioners; those who agreed to participate were sent a questionnaire containing the above measures. Subsequently, the UM-CIDI was administered by telephone to 469 subjects consisting of sibling pairs who scored most discordantly or concordantly on a composite index of the 4 measures. Logistic Regression and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were carried out to assess the predictive accuracy of the dimensional measures on UM-CIDI diagnosis. A total of 179 subjects, 62 men and 117 women with an average age of 42 years, were diagnosed with at least one of the following psychiatric disorders: depression, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia, agoraphobia and panic attack. The six disorders showed high comorbidity. EPQ-N and the Composite Index were found to be very strong and accurate predictors of psychiatric caseness; they were however unable to differentiate between specific disorders. The results from the present study therefore validated the four mental health measures as being predictive of psychiatric caseness.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005