The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) is a semi-structured interview for making the major DSM-IV Axis I diagnoses. The SCID-II is a semi-structured interview for making DSM-IV Axis II: Personality Disorder diagnoses.

The instrument is designed to be administered by a clinician or trained mental health professional. Ideally, this will be someone who has had experience performing unstructured diagnostic evaluations. However, for the purposes of some research studies, non-clinician research assistants who have extensive experience with the study population in question have been trained to use the SCID. The less clinical experience the potential interviewer has had, the more training required.

Reliability and validity of the SCID for DSM-III-R and DSM-IV has been reported in several studies. With regard to reliability, the range in reliability is enormous, depending on the nature of the sample and research methodology (i.e., joint vs. test-retest, multi-site vs. single site with raters who have worked together, etc.). Click here for information regarding SCID-I reliability and click here for information regarding SCID-II reliability (including tables summarizing reliability results).

The Microsoft Word document that make up the SCID-I-RV (Research Version) are available for the purpose of assisting researchers in making modifications to the SCID in order to customize it for their particular study. Click here for more information on how to order it. Multi-Health Systems Inc. of Toronto, Canada (1-800-456-3003; www.mhs.

A module for the SCID has been developed for the Impulse Control Disorders (i.e., Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Pyromania, Kleptomania, Pathological Gambling, and Trichotillomania) in collaboration with a number of the leading researchers in Impulse Control Disorders, including Jon Gant, Eric Hollander, Susan McElroy, Lorrin Koran, Andrea Allen, Marc Portenza, Dan Stein, and Larry Siever.

Not necessarily. The most important factors are clinical experience and a willingness to follow the SCID rules. The best qualification for being able to administer a SCID is the ability to conduct a diagnostic evaluation without using the SCID.

The SCID-CT (Clinical Trials) is a version of the SCID being developed in partnership with i3 Research for use in clinical trials. It is essentially a modified version of the SCID-RV (Research Version) that has been reformatted, streamlined, and optimized for use in clinical trials for specific drug indications that incorporate typical inclusion and exclusion criteria.

In addition to assessment of current psychiatric patients, the SCID has been used to assess lifetime psychiatric diagnoses in medical patients, family members, community samples, college students, the homeless, the elderly, and in short, any English-speaking adult who is able to participate in the interview. Although the vast majority of studies have used the SCID on adults, some investigators have successfully administered the SCID to adolescents.

The SCID-I-RV/P (Patient Edition) is the standard Research version SCID and is designed for use with subjects who are identified as psychiatric patients. For settings in which psychotic disorders are expected to be rare (e.g., an outpatient anxiety clinic) or for studies in which patients with psychotic disorders are being screened out, an abridged edition of the SCID-I-RV/P (SCID-I/P W/ PSYCHOTIC SCREEN) is available. This edition replaces the standard Psychotic Modules (i.e.