[Contribution of the AMDP scale to quantitative psychopathology]

The AMDP-System, elaborated by the Association for Methodology and Documentation in Psychiatry, comprises three anamnestic forms and two rating scales on present psychopathological and somatic state. Its success is increasing in the German-speaking and French-speaking countries. The author's thesis bears among others on the following aspects: importance of the naming of the items for the reliability of the underlying concepts, elaboration of a semi-structured interview and of a video methodology, programming of a new measure of interrater reliability in single cases, improvement of the somatic scale, and franco-belgian factor analyses showing the stability of the AMDP structure and the interest of anxiety items specific for the French version [Acta psychiat. belg., 85, 1-252 (1985)].