A 5-YEAR FOLLOW-UP ON THE TEMPORAL STABILITY OF THE EGO IMPAIRMENT INDEX

This study investigated the temporal stability of the Ego Impairment I ndex (EII) over a 5-year period. The EII is based on the Comprehensive System (Exner, 1993) and has shown promise as a measure of internal d isturbance and psychopathology (Perry & Braff, 1994; Perry & Viglione, 1991; Perry, Viglione, & Braff, 1992). This study successfully recall ed 17 subjects from an original sample of 46 who initially suffered fr om Major Depression, Melancholic-Type 5 years earlier and were treated with antidepressant medication. These subjects did not differ signifi cantly from those subjects who were not successfully recalled. The Ror schach and a variety of other measures were administered to the subjec ts. The results revealed impressive temporal consistency over 5 years: a rank-order, test-retest correlation of .68. The EII was also correl ated with some of the measures of overall adaptation. These results ar e consistent with the notion that the EII is a stable trait-measure of psychopathology. Limitations because of the small subgroup of subject s, although not unusual in longitudinal research, are noted.