Comparison of DSM-III-R symptoms for alcohol dependence between patient self-report and clinician interview or the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R.

This study sought to determine which Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R), symptoms of alcohol dependence were most sensitive to under-reporting by 78 inpatients from alcohol treatment programs. We hypothesized that patients would be more reluctant to report social/behavioral symptoms (lost time, hazardous behavior or major role interference, and reduced activities) than psychological or physiological symptoms. Patient endorsement of symptoms on a self-administered diagnostic questionnaire was compared with parallel items on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) and clinician interview. Bias and Prevalence Adjusted Kappas for individual symptom agreement ranged from -.02 to .87. Subjects endorsed fewer symptoms per category than either the SCID or clinician interview. Using a Student-Newman-Kuels post-hoc analysis at the p < .05 level, we found that mean agreement for the social/behavioral category was significantly lower than mean agreement for the other categories.