The Clinical Interview for Psychotic Disorders

The Department of Psychological Medicine (University of Coimbra, Faculty of Medicine) and the Cognitive and Behavioral Center for Research and Intervention (University of Coimbra, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences) developed a new semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of the psychotic-spectrum. The “Clinical Interview for Psychotic Disorders” (CIPD is used thereafter), based on DSM5 (2013) criteria, is divided in four main sections: 1) Psychosis-spectrum disorders; 2) Mood-related disorders; 3) Substance-related disorders; 4) Co-morbidity and Associated Symptoms. The sections are independent, and individual sections can be used independently (e.g. psychosis-spectrum) to assess change (e.g. after psychopharmacological intervention). The CIPD has two types of scores: a) diagnosis scores (absence/presence of symptoms; total score for symptom severity and frequency – positive and negative symptoms); and extra-diagnosis scores (total score of conviction regarding delusions; total score for empowerment with psychotic symptoms; total score of interference caused by symptoms of all sections; total score for suicide risk – considering psychotic and humor-related symptoms, past and present). The CIPD also have a total score for severity of psychotic illness (considering the different contributions of different symptoms to the diagnosis and a score for treatment adherence. This score can be useful in assessing overall change due to treatment. The CIPD has two types of raters – there are clinician-rated questions and patient-rated questions. The CIPD has already been submitted to an expert panel evaluation in order to assess: the relevance of the items and the clarity of language (for the specific population. Results from the panel highlight the adequacy and clinical pertinence of the CIPD. This Project aims at studying the psychometric properties of the CIPD in a sample of patients with a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder.

Objectives and Hypothesis:

1. Primary

• Specific objective: Validating the CIPD in a clinical Portuguese population with a diagnosis of a psychotic-spectrum disorder (DSM-5).
• Hypothesis:

1.1. The CIPD will have high inter-rater agreement;

1.2. The CIPD will have sensitivity and specificity – the ability to detect differences in different psychotic diagnostic categories and ability to correctly identify the diagnosis.

2. Secondary

• Hypothesis:

2.1. Specific sections of the CIPD (e.g. psychotic symptoms) will have good convergent and divergent validity;

2.2. Quantitative ratings will fit acceptably to factorial models.

3. Other

• Hypothesis:

3.1. The CIPD will have predictive validity as evaluated by measuring change after a clinical (e.g. psychotherapeutic) intervention (1 week after the intervention).

3.2. The CIPD will be well accepted by the patients and the interview will not be an aversive moment.