OBJECTIVE: To create an instrument to determine the mental disorder offenders' competency to stand trial, which is according with the Chinese legal system. METHODS: Integrating the foreign instruments and the Chinese criminal jurisprudence, and combing the authors' forensic psychiatric experience, the research team created an instrument which was called Competency to stand trial Determining Instrument firstly, then used the instrument in practice, in the end the validity and reliability of the instrument were inspected, and through an diagnostic test, the feasibility of the instrument was evaluated. RESULTS: Split-half and homogeneity reliability of the instrument is 0.9366 and 0.9213 respectively, the correspondence of the conclusion between the instrument and the expertise is 0.704. Except the sensitivity is 0.6097, all the other diagnostic index are over 0.80. CONCLUSION The Competency to stand trial Determining Instrument is feasible.
Expert Testimony ; Forensic Psychiatry/methods* ; Humans ; Mental Competency/standards* ; Mental Disorders/psychology* ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires

INTRODUCTIONThis study aims to validate the Zarit Burden Interview as an instrument to measure the level of burden experienced by caregivers of patients with dementia (PWD) in Singapore.

MATERIALS AND METHODSAdult family caregivers of PWD were recruited from the ambulatory dementia clinic of a tertiary hospital and the Alzheimer's Disease Association. All subjects completed a battery of questionnaires which consisted of demographic questions and the following instruments: the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), Burden Assessment Scale (BAS), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), Dementia Management Strategies Scale (DMSS), and the Revised Memory and Behaviour Problems Checklist (RMBPC). A subgroup of subjects also completed the ZBI for the second time 2 weeks after the fi rst survey.

RESULTSA total of 238 subjects completed the survey. As hypothesised, the Zarit burden score was strongly correlated with BAS, GHQ-28, DMSS, and RMBPC scores (Pearson's correlation coefficient: 0.53 to 0.73); caregivers who undertook the major role in caregiving, had spent >1 year in caregiving, or experienced financial problems had higher Zarit burden scores than those who were not main carers, with ≤1 year of caregiving, or reported no/minimal financial problems, respectively. The Cronbach's alpha value for the ZBI items was 0.93; the intra-class correlation coefficient for the test-retest reliability of the Zarit burden score was 0.89 (n = 149).

CONCLUSIONThe results in this study demonstrated that the Zarit Burden Interview is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the burden of caregivers of PWD in Singapore.

Adult ; Caregivers ; psychology ; Cost of Illness ; Dementia ; nursing ; Female ; Humans ; Interview, Psychological ; methods ; standards ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; standards ; Stress, Psychological ; diagnosis ; ethnology

The Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS) was developed to overcome the limitations of existing instruments and reflect the current view of negative symptoms. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (K-CAINS). Inpatients (n = 49) and outpatients (n = 70) with schizophrenia were recruited from three institutions. The confirmative factor analysis, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were assessed. The study group consisted of 71 males (59.7%) and 48 females (40.3%). Their mean age was 42.15 years (SD = 12.2). The K-CAINS was confirmed to be divided into two subscales of 9 items related to "motivation/pleasure" and 4 items related to "expression" in concordance with the original version of the CAINS. The results showed that the K-CAINS had a good inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.84-0.94), test-retest reliability (r = 0.90, P < 0.001). Convergent validity was proven by demonstrating a significant correlation with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) negative subscale, and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS). Discriminant validity was proven by the lack of a significant correlation with the PANSS positive subscale, the Korean version of the Beck depression inventory (BDI), the Korean version of the Calgary depression scale for schizophrenia (K-CDSS), and the Modified Simpson Angus scale (MSAS). The K-CAINS could be a reliable and valid tool to assess the negative symptoms of Korean schizophrenia patients.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Discriminant Analysis ; Female ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/standards ; Republic of Korea ; Schizophrenia/*diagnosis ; *Translating

Competency to stand trial relates directly to legal rights of the appraised individual as well as whether criminal procedure can be carried out smoothly. Foreign scholars have conducted a large number of theoretical researches, and developed a series of standardized evaluation tools. However, the assessment on competency to stand trial has mainly focused on medical criteria in China for a long time, and most cases were judged by forensic psychiatrists' experience. Recently, Chinese scholars have started the initial research on standardized evaluation. This paper reviews the notion of competency to stand trial, the evaluation criteria, and the assessment tools domestically and abroad. The main focus is on foreign assessment tools, which included three categories. First category includes checklist, self-report questionnaires and sentence-completion tasks. Second category is the interview-based instruments without criterion-based scoring. Last category is the interview-based instruments with criterion-based scoring. This literature may be helpful for further research and standardization on assessment tools of competency to stand trial of mentally disordered offenders.
Crime/psychology* ; Criminal Law/legislation & jurisprudence* ; Criminals/psychology* ; Forensic Psychiatry/standards* ; Humans ; Insanity Defense ; Mental Competency/psychology* ; Mental Disorders/psychology* ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; Psychological Tests ; Reference Standards ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUNDThe Composite International Diagnostic Interview-3.0 (CIDI-3.0) is a fully structured lay-administered diagnostic interview for the assessment of mental disorders according to ICD-10 and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria. The aim of the study was to investigate the concurrent validity of the Chinese CIDI in diagnosing mental disorders in psychiatric settings.

METHODSWe recruited 208 participants, of whom 148 were patients from two psychiatric hospitals and 60 healthy people from communities. These participants were administered with CIDI by six trained lay interviewers and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I, gold standard) by two psychiatrists. Agreement between CIDI and SCID-I was assessed with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value. Individual-level CIDI-SCID diagnostic concordance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve and Cohen's K.

RESULTSSubstantial to excellent CIDI to SCID concordance was found for any substance use disorder (area under the receiver operator characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.926), any anxiety disorder (AUC = 0.807) and any mood disorder (AUC = 0.806). The concordance between the CIDI and the SCID for psychotic and eating disorders is moderate. However, for individual mental disorders, the CIDI-SCID concordance for bipolar disorders (AUC = 0.55) and anorexia nervosa (AUC = 0.50) was insufficient.

CONCLUSIONSOverall, the Chinese version of CIDI-3.0 has acceptable validity in diagnosing the substance use disorder, anxiety disorder and mood disorder among Chinese adult population. However, we should be cautious when using it for bipolar disorders and anorexia nervosa.

Adult ; Anorexia Nervosa ; diagnosis ; Anxiety Disorders ; diagnosis ; Bipolar Disorder ; diagnosis ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Female ; Humans ; International Classification of Diseases ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; standards ; Young Adult