VALIDITY OF THE PAS-ADD FOR DETECTING PSYCHIATRIC-SYMPTOMS IN ADULTS WITH LEARNING-DISABILITY (MENTAL-RETARDATION)

The Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with Developmental Disa bility (PAS-ADD) is a semi-structured interview for use with responden ts who have learning disability and for key informants. This report in vestigates the ability of the instrument to detect symptoms that had b een found to exist during routine clinical assessment of the patients. Field trials involved 95 referred patients with learning disability a nd a key informant for each sample member. Clinical opinions of the re ferring psychiatrists were sought using a symptom checklist. Referrer checklist symptoms and PAS-ADD data were both factor analysed. Validit y testing involved (a) computation of correlations between PAS-ADD fac tors and checklist data and (b) comparison of PAS-ADD and referrers' d iagnoses. Results indicated good validity for the PAS-ADD in relation to psychotic symptoms and depressive symptoms. Anxiety symptom identif ication was not well validated. probably due to small numbers. Expansi ve mood identified by the referrers was not detected by the PAS-ADD be cause there is currently no corresponding section in the interview. Wh ere the PAS-ADD produced a diagnosis (in 58 members of the sample), 44 were in agreement with the referrer. Probability of diagnosis by PAS- ADD increased with the number of relevant active symptoms identified b y the referrer. The PAS-ADD has been shown in a previous report to hav e the sensitivity to detect mental disorders not known to psychiatric services. For psychotic and depressive conditions, our results showed that symptom detection was in good agreement with the information prov ided by the referring psychiatrists on their patients. The PAS-ADD nee ds a section on hypomania and further investigation of its detection o f anxiety disorders.