The assessment of the severity of non-psychotic psychiatric illness by means of a questionnaire

• Main Author: Goldberg, David P.
• Published: King's College London (University of London) 1967
• Subjects: 616.89
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.601765

1. The aim of the present study is to devise an instrument that will measure the severity of non-psychotic psychiatric illness regardless of the diagnosis. The instrument should be easy to administer, ecceptab1e to the respondent, fairly short, and objective i n the sense that it does not require the person administering it to make any subjective judgements about the patient. 2 . In Chapter 2 a short historical review' is given of the notion that psychiatric illness occurs in people who have had no contact with the psychiatric services and who are still living in the community. The present study is an attempt to produce a measuring instrument which will identify such people, and which can be used in community surveys. 3. Methods of identifying psychiatric cases by interview are reviewed and discussed, and the disadvantages of interview methods in large-scale surveys are described. The present questionnaire would provide the first stage in what should be a two-stage process of psychiatric case identification : the second stage being the clinical interview by an experienced psychiatrist of cases identified by the questionnaire.