Comparison of psychiatric screening Instruments: GHQ-28, BSI and MMPI

Clinical interview comprises a method for of psychiatric disorders diagnosis. Given the cost, time, and expertise required for clinical assessment; alternative tools to accurately substitute clinical interviews are having high value. We conduct this study to compare the screening accuracy of GHQ-28, BSI, and MMPI.

Considering a diagnostic value, this study was conducted on 983 students and 3 psychiatric screening tools; GHQ-28, BSI, and MMPI were completed by students. Among the whole participants, 237 students were interviewed by the clinical psychiatrists on the basis of DSM-IV-IR Criteria. Based on ANOVO and Chi-square, results compare was made. Kappa correlation -coefficient was calculated in a pairwise manner; eventually the diagnostic accuracy of each tool was determined by the means of ROC analysis.

The diversity of psychiatric disorders by GHQ-28, was about 39.1, on the basis of BST was 44.8% and 44% for MMPI. The sensitivity and specificity of GHQ-28 was 85.9% and 87.8% considering 21.5 as the cut-off point; respectively. Considering 41/5 as the cut-off point for the BSI test, sensitivity and specificity were 81.2% and 90.8%; respectively, and 88.2% and 91.4% for the MMPI test with the cut-off point of 63.5 compared to clinical interview, the MMPI test was associated with the greatest accurate staging, ranging about 90.3%.

The results of this study according to clinical assessment reveal that GHQ-28, BSI, and MMPI psychiatric tools have high sensitivity and specificity and MMPI possessed the greatest efficiency compared to other evaluated tools.