[Compatibility between AMDP scales and "Research Diagnostic Criteria" (RDC) for the diagnosis of endogenous...

Research Diagnostic Criteria represent the most widely used system in research in biological psychiatry to select homogenous samples of patients with a defined psychiatric illness. The AMDP system represents the most complete system for documentation and quantification of psychopathology. On the conceptual point of view, it seems possible to use AMDP psychopathological and somatical scales to select patients who meet criteria of "major depressive disorder" of RDC. In fact, equivalents exist for most of the criteria. For an optimal correspondence, only two psychopathological reserve items--in place of little useful items--and two somatical reserve items could easily be included. A preliminary study has enabled to control the sense of this methodology. A more complete study that verifies the compatibility of both approaches and the ability to automatically select endogenous depressives from AMDP scales is ongoing.