Standardization of a psychiatric screening test for use by general practitioners in Sardinia. Preliminary results.

The use of screening test for case-finding studies was introduced only a few years ago in Italy. This study aimed to define the degree of accuracy of the Italian version of the 24-item Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-24) applied by general practitioners to their patients. The latter was carried out by comparing results with those obtained by means of the Present State Examination performed by a qualified psychiatrist. About 37% of patients interviewed could be considered as cases. In particular, 23% were affected by anxiety disorder and 14% by a depressive disorder. The receiver operating characteristic analysis showed a fairly good degree of accuracy of SRQ-24 for cut-off points between 7 and 8.