TURING GAME AND THE CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE OF OUTCOME WITH BORDERLINE PATIENTS AT A DAY HOSPITAL

Clinical significance of a treatment effect is indicated when a treate d patient, after discharge, cannot be distinguished clinically from a person who is functioning on some criterion level in terms of adjustme nt and normality. This principle is demonstrated in a questionnaire fo llow-up of patients at a day hospital. Defining the criterion level, a sex- and age-matched nonpatient group completed the same questionnair e. On the basis of the questionnaires, four judges independently guess ed whether or not each respondent was an ex-patient. The agreement amo ng the judges was high, and their classification agreed with that of a discriminant analysis in eventually declaring approximately 25% of th e patients to be nonpatients. A simple model was proposed to account f or the judges' performance.