A Rating Scale Developed for Use in Clinical Psychiatric Investigations

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Abstract
The impulse to attempt this study arose from difficulties encountered in the process of trying to demonstrate the efficacy or inadequacy of various methods of psychiatric treatment (Monro, 1950; and Monro and Conitzer, 1950). The problem which arose was that of matching groups, whose composition necessitated a struggle with diagnostic and prognostic criteria difficult to define and still more difficult to secure agreement about. The chief trouble derived from the fact that the systems of classification in normal psychiatric use had their roots in the past, when the cases were dealt with at a more advanced stage, or were of a more serious nature, than many which are today seen in out-patient clinics and mental hospitals. In the search for a more adequate system of classifying recent and therapeutically promising cases, the work of Cattell (1946) suggested a possible method of advance. It seemed sound to hope that the application of modern psychological techniques to psychiatric problems would be as useful as past applications of the principles of physiology and pathology to clinical medicine.

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