The validity and reliability of the WHO Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN Thai Version): Mood Disorders Section.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Mood disorders are one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders that have early onset, are chronic and can cause functional impairment. It is therefore crucial to establish an accurate diagnosis for treatment and research purposes. OBJECTIVES: The authors aimed to test the validity and reliability of the WHO Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN Thai Version) Mood Disorders Section. MATERIAL AND METHOD: First, psychiatrists competent in the use of the schedules and their underlying objectives tests the linguistic clarity of the Thai psychiatric schedules in four regions of the country. Then between October 2003 and August 2004, Reliability of SCAN mood disorder section was tested among 30 participants, including mood disordered patients and normal volunteers. RESULTS: Based on reactions from Thais and consultations from competent psychiatrists, content validity was established. The duration of interviews for the mood disorder sections averaged 63.6 min (SD = 17.1). The inter- and intra-rater reliability kappa were 0.80 (0.77-0.83) and 0.86 (0.84-0.88), respectively. The reliability of the majority of items reached substantial to almost perfect agreement; however, 1 item (1%) had only slight agreement and 15 items (12%) had moderate agreement, and needed clarification of the scoring method CONCLUSION: The Mood Disorders Sections of the WHO Neuropsychiatry Schedules for Clinical Assessment (SCAN Thai Version) were effective tools for diagnosing mood disorders among Thais.