Jw. Goethe et Eh. Fischer, VALIDITY OF THE DIAGNOSTIC INTERVIEW SCHEDULE FOR DETECTING ALCOHOLISM IN PSYCHIATRIC-INPATIENTS, The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 21(4), 1995, pp. 565-571
This study examined the accuracy of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule
(DIS) for indicating alcohol use disorder in a sample of patients hosp
italized for depression. The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST)
, with its established validity, was considered a good criterion again
st which to evaluate the DIS, and preferable to the clinician-assigned
diagnosis in this regard. The rates of alcoholism in the sample were
31, 33, and 22.5% as yielded by the DIS, MAST, and physician's diagnos
is of alcohol disorder, respectively. (The lower rare for physician's
diagnosis may be due to the physician's not applying this diagnosis to
recovered or currently abstinent alcohol patients.) Using the MAST's
standard cutoff of five points as indicative of alcoholism, agreement
with the DIS occurred in 91% of the cases, corresponding to a product
moment coefficient of .79. It was concluded that the DIS alcoholism sc
ale could be used, with reasonable confidence in its validity, for ass
essing alcoholism in psychiatric settings.