Development and validation of NIMHANS screening tool for psychological problems in Indian context

Screening for psychiatric morbidity helps to identify disease, enable initiation of treatment and intervention to reduce mortality and suffering from psychological problems. There is a dearth of such scales in India and South East Asia. The present work aims to develop and validate the NIMHANS screening tool for psychological problems in Indian context. 754 (229 normal subjects and 525 clinical subjects) were taken from the community and in-patient and out patient psychiatric setting of the hospital. Socio-demographic datasheet and the newly developed tool were administered on them. Split half reliability of the tool was .84. Score of 12 & 24 and above indicated presence of psychiatric distress in normal and clinical group respectively. Discriminate validity developed with sensitivity of .76 and specificity of .82. The NIMHANS screening tool for psychological problems has a utility in screening out psychiatric distress in the community.