Personality disorder test takes only 5 minutes
Researchers from the University of Iowa (UI) Health Care in Iowa City have developed a screening test that shows promise as a method for faster and more efficient diagnoses of personality disorders.
Personality disorder screens are used to determine whether individuals have personality traits that cause persistent or recurrent problems. The screens typically consist of a lengthy set of questions and are usually administered by specialized personnel, making them costly and inefficient tools for routine use.
The Iowa Personality Disorder Screen (IPDS) is an interview that covers 11 different symptoms determined by UI researchers to be at the core of personality disorders. The IPDS has 19 questions and takes only five minutes to administer, in contrast to longer, more comprehensive interviews that contain 100-plus questions and take hours to complete.
"The current gold standard for diagnosing personality disorders is the detailed interview that must be conducted by a specially trained interviewer," says Douglas R. Langbehn, MD, PhD, UI assistant professor of psychiatry and one of the lead researchers in the development of the new screening tool. But longer tests are not practical to use in all research and/or clinical settings, he notes. "The IPDS takes only about five minutes to conduct, and it can help researchers and/or clinical caregivers pick out people who may need more careful assessment with the longer, established tests."
The UI research team analyzed some 1,203 longer, more comprehensive screening interviews used at UI and five other institutions in the United States, Canada, and Italy to determine questions that would provide the most effective "quick screen" for personality disorders. The research team then tested the effectiveness of questions selected for inclusion in the IPDS by conducting validation interviews via telephone with 52 patients originally diagnosed through longer, face-to-face screens.
The validation interviews showed that several key questions were particularly effective at indicating whether a person is likely to have a personality disorder. Those found most useful focused on social avoidance and anxiety, and included questions such as "Do you generally feel nervous or anxious around people?" and "Do you avoid situations where you have to meet new people?"
Further study of the IPDS is on tap. "We don’t yet know how well the screen works in general community settings," says Langbehn. "But we hope this short screen, which should be easy to include in the clinical setting, will help non-specialists identify people who have a high probability of having a personality disorder," he says, "and help health care professionals carry out further assessments or make appropriate referrals."
[For additional information, contact Douglas R. Langbehn, MD, PhD, 9W-18, Dept. of Psychiatry, VA Medical Center, Highway 6, Iowa City, IA 52246. E-mail: [email protected].]
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