[Experiences with "Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN)" within the scope of a multicenter...

The "Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry" (SCAN), a comprehensive set of clinical assessment instruments were developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the London Institute of Psychiatry. A central aim is to provide clinicians and researchers with a standardized interview for ICD-10 diagnoses. Core instrument of SCAN is the 10th version of the "Present State Examination" (PSE) which has proved to be one of the most helpful psychopathological assessment instruments. PSE-10 covers a wide range of non-psychotic as well as of psychotic symptoms and includes special modules for ICD-10 and DSM-IIIR diagnoses, e.g. alcohol and drug abuse, sleeping and eating disorders. A computer program (CATEGO-V) is also developed for standardized scoring and diagnostics. The paper introduces SCAN by describing its structure and applicability. Different rating periods and scales are explained, and PSE-10 is contrasted with PSE-9 in a whole. SCAN experiences within a reliability study are reported, completed by a critical evaluation of the most recent version of the SCAN system.