The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI): The development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10

The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) is a short str uctured diagnostic interview, developed jointly by psychiatrists and clinic ians in the United States and Europe, for DSM-IV and ICD-IO psychiatric dis orders. With an administration time of approximately 15 minutes, it was des igned to meet the need for a short but accurate structured psychiatric inte rview for multicenter clinical trials and epidemiology studies and to be us ed as a first step in outcome tracking in nonresearch clinical settings. Th e authors describe the development of the M.I.N.I. and its family of interv iews: the M.I.N.I.-Screen, the M.I.N.I.-Plus, and the M.I.N.I.-Kid. They re port on validation of the M.I.N.I. in relation to the Structured Clinical I nterview for DSM-III-R, Patient Version, the Composite International Diagno stic Interview, and expert professional opinion, and they comment on potent ial applications for this interview.