Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia: Regular and Change Versions

Abstract

This article represents the French translation of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS), developed by researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University (New York) to permit the selection of homogeneous samples of patients presenting with a defined psychiatric illness. The SADS was developed in the mid-1970s in an effort to provide research investigators with a clinical procedure which would reduce information variance in both diagnostic and descriptive evaluations of subjects. It provides: 1. A detailed description of the features of the current episode of illness when they were at their most severe; 2. A similar description of the major features during the week prior to the evaluation; 3. A detailed description of past psychopathology and functioning relevant to the evaluation of prognosis and overall severity of disturbance; and 4. A series of questions and criteria which enable one to make diagnoses using the Research Diagnostic Criteria. These criteria currently represent the most widely used nosologic system for clinical research in psychiatry, allowing for comparison of results and facilitation of replication by different research teams.