A Persian translation of the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition: psychometric properties

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of a Persian translation of the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) through a multicenter study in a clinical population in Iran.MethodThe sample consisted of 299 subjects admitted to outpatient or inpatient services of 3 psychiatric centers in Tehran, Iran. The SCID was administered by trained interviewers. To study the test-retest reliability, a second independent SCID interview was administered to 104 of the entire sample within 3 to 7 days of the first interviews. For the assessment of validity, the SCID diagnoses were compared with the consensus clinical diagnoses made by 2 psychiatrists for all 299 patients.ResultsDiagnostic agreements between test and retest SCID administration were fair to good for most diagnostic categories. Overall weighted κ was 0.52 for current diagnoses and 0.55 for lifetime diagnoses. Specificity values for most psychiatric disorders were high (>0.85); the sensitivity values were somewhat lower.ConclusionsThe Persian translation of the SCID yields diagnoses with acceptable to good reliability and validity in a clinical population in Iran. This supports the cross-cultural use of the instrument.