Stress and Adjustment Disorder Section of WHO Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN)--Thai version: validity and reliability study.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the validity and reliability of the Thai version of the Stress and Adjustment Disorder section of WHO Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) version 2.1.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: The SCAN interview version 2.1 Stress and Adjustment Disorder section was translated into Thai and its content validity tested by back translation. The linguistic clarity of the psychiatric schedules for Thais from the country's four regions was tested by psychiatrists competent in the use of the schedules and aware of their underlying objectives. The reliability of SCAN: Stress and Adjustment Disorder section was tested between June and November 2006 on 30 participants, including 18 patients with stress-related disorders (adjustment disorder post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress reaction) and 12 normal volunteers.

RESULTS

Based on reactions from the sample and consultations from competent psychiatrists, content validity was established The duration of interviews for the Stress and Adjustment Disorder section averaged 17.92 min (25.59 for patients with stress-related disorders and 6.41 for normal subjects). The respective mean inter- and intra-rater reliability kappa was 0.90 (SD = 0.12) and 0.94 (SD = 0.09). A respective 77.05% and 85.26% of the items reached a substantial to almost perfect level of inter- and intra-rater agreement.

CONCLUSION

The Stress and Adjustment Disorder section of the WHO Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN Thai Version) is demonstrably an effective tool for diagnosing stress-related disorders among Thais.