Reliability of the psychiatric diagnosis

Abstract

The results of this investigation clearly indicate that the reliability of the psychiatric diagnosis is rather low. Findings suggest that the revised DMS-II is not significantly different from the earlier DSM-I in aiding or guiding psychiatrists in their decision to assign diagnostic labels that are agreed upon with their colleagues. An examination of relevant factors that are involved in the diagnostic process suggests three possible sources of error. First, it is plausible that the experience of the interviewer is of vital importance and that variability in diagnostic labelling could be a function of different degrees of professional competency. A second reason for the low reliability may be that the patient population was not representative of psychiatric patients in general, since they were private patients derived mostly from the middle socioeconomic class. Thirdly, the poor reliability of diagosis may be attributed to the inadequacy of the DSM-II as a classification system.