Brief form of the Competency Screening Test for mental competence to stand trial

Investigated a brief 5-item version of the Competency Screening Test (a sentence completion test of mental competence to stand trial) for its relationship to the complete 22-item test, and for its power to predict the mental competency findings of a comprehensive Clinical Psychiatric Evaluation conducted by a forensic psychiatrist. Ss were 21 female patients serially examined in a forensic psychiatric service for mental competence to stand trial. Tests were individually administered. The brief version of Competency Screening Test was highly correlated, with the full test Rho = .92. It classified 17 (of 21) patients in direct agreement with the results of the Clinical Psychiatric Evaluation. It showed a theoretical, but small relationship with verbal intelligence for this group. The 5-item form seems applicable for preliminary competency screening evaluation.