The Assessment Interview: A Review of Structured and Semi-structured Clinical Interviews Available for Use Among Hispanic Clients

Abstract

Diagnostic interviews are helpful instruments, designed to improve agreement on psychiatric disorders assessment, according to main existing diagnostic criteria. In order to achieve satisfactory standards across different languages and cultures, interviews have to be validated in the different languages according to a standard protocol. Being Spanish one of the most widely spoken language in the world, it is important to dispose of validated Spanish versions of the most used clinical interviews. Structured interviews ensure a high level of standardization and are generally applied for epidemiological studies. The AUDADIS, the DIS-IV, the CIDI, and the MINI all dispose of a validated Spanish. Semi-structured interviews allowing a higher degree of interpretation are more suitable in a clinical setting, where expert interviewers apply them. Spanish version is available for the SCID, the SCAN, the PRISM, and the DIGS. This chapter reviews the psychometric characteristics of validated Spanish versions of these interviews.