A systems analytic model of diagnosis: VI. Improved diagnostic validity from median data

✍ Scribed by Peter E. Nathan; Charles F. Gould; Nancy C. Zare; Michael Roth

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1969
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 506 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-4679(196910)25:4<370::aid-jclp2270250408>3.0.co;2-x

✦ Synopsis

This study evaluated the diagnostic validity of 100 common signs and symptoms of psychopathology by a new median statistical procedure. Data from 924 psychiatric patients revealed that (a) eight symptoms consistently separated psychotic patients from all others; no symptoms distinguished between psychoneurotic and personality disorder patients ; (b) four large groups of symptoms, corresponding to Bleuler's fundamental symptoms, set off the schizophrenias; (c) several additional groups of symptoms differentiated the drug and alcohol intoxications and indicated that only drug intoxication consistently presents as acute psychosis; and (d) anxiety and depression were seen so often in all patients that they failed to show any differential diagnostic value. The significance of these findings for Menninger's and Thorne's models of mental illness is also discussed.