ESTIMATION OF THE MAJOR PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS BY OBJECTIVE TEST SCORES

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Abstract
Recent research has established behavioral definitions of five major psychotic disorders called schizophrenic disorganization, paranoid process, hostile paranoia, psychotic depression, and disorganized hyperactivity. The study aim was to determine how well each of the disorders could be estimated from objective measures of psychomotor and cognitive performance, test situation behavior and free verbalization. A broad sample of 125 psychotics were administered 15 objective tests and rated on the Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale, a standardized interview schedule. The regression analysis was applied in two stages to estimate the five disorders. First the objective test scores and then the behavioral indicators were applied as predictors. Findings indicated that all disorders except hostile paranoia could be estimated rather well from just a few objective test scores. When the 4-minute verbalization measures were added, the multiple correlations were substantially enhanced for all criteria except paranoid process. The results suggest that a brief objective test battery supplemented by the recorded verbalization test could be used to measure the major psychotic behavioral dimensions.

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