Convergent and discriminant validity of DSM-IV axis II personality disorder criteria in adult outpatients with binge eating disorder

The study objective was to evaluate the within-category cohesiveness and be tween-category overlap of DSM-IV axis II personality disorders (PDs) in out patients with binge eating disorder (BED), Seventy adult outpatients with B ED were reliably administered the Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV Personali ty Disorders (DIPD-IV), Within-category interrelatedness of the criteria wa s evaluated by Cronbach's alpha and mean intercriterion correlations (MICs) . Between-category criterion overlap was evaluated by examining intercatego ry mean intercriterion correlations between ail pairs PDs (ICMICs). Cronbac h's alpha was .64 to .93 (mean .77), the MIC was .17 to .52 (mean, .34), an d the ICMIC was .11 to .39 (mean, .28), Our findings indicate that in outpa tients with BED, the DSM-IV PD criteria sets have convergent validity (acce ptable alpha value and MIG). Some degree of discriminant validity also exis ts: criteria for most DSM-IV PDs correlate better with each other (MIC) tha n with criteria for other PDs (ICMIC), Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.