Diagnostic accuracy in the first 5 min of a psychiatric interview - Impactof the information given by patients

Background: There is little if any research on the explicit contents delive red by patients in the first minutes of a psychiatric interview. Methods: I n order to study the impact of the first minutes of a psychiatric interview on final diagnosis, we gathered information from the speech during the fir st 5 min in 162 new psychiatric patients with a checklist including symptom s extracted from the SCAN interview. Results: The area reported most freque ntly was life events (51.2%). The average of psychiatric symptoms cited was 2.3, An initial suspected diagnosis was done in 126 patients, and in 73 pa tients (57.9% of those with a suspected diagnosis, 45.1 % of the total samp le) the initial diagnosis was coincident with the final diagnosis. The init ial clinical impression was more accurate in adjustment and 'neurotic' diso rders, and less in mood disorders. Those patients who cited more symptoms r eceived a less accurate initial diagnosis. Conclusions Psychiatric patients spontaneously report a low number of symptoms. The accuracy of psychiatric diagnosis in the first minutes of an interview is unacceptably low. Howeve r, the role of short psychiatric interviewing as a screening method deserve s to be further investigated. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG., Basel.