Reliability and clinical utility of the "Wing" Present State examination.

Abstract

We examined the reliability and clinical utility of a structured mental status interview schedule, the eighth edition of the Present State Examination. Using this schedule, we interviewed a consecutive series of patients with functional psychiatric disorders shortly following admission. We modified the scoring methods to provide a concise yet meaningful profile of psychopathological disorders. We confirmed its high interrater reliability using video tapes of approximately every tenth interview and demonstrated that it is a practical technique for the examination of patients with functional disorders by showing that a high quality interview was obtainable. Finally, we showed that it is a powerful diagnostic tool, and with our scoring modifications provides a valid, clinically meaningful profile of psychopathological features of the major functional disorders: schizophrenia, affective psychoses, and neurotic personality disorders.