Why do we need the SCIP as a new diagnostic interview in psychiatry?
- Although several structured and semi-structured interviews exist in the psychiatric literature, none was designed to be used by psychiatrists in the real world of psychiatric practice. The SCIP is the only diagnostic interview designed for psychiatrists to use in real clinical settings. The SCIP was designed to be a measurement-based care (MBC) tool and is compatible with electronic health records (EHR).
- The SCIP yields three types of output: a diagnostic classification of the disorder, dimensional scores and numeric data. The SCIP provides diagnoses according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and International Classification of Disease (ICD) criteria. Dimensional scores are provided for the following types of psychopathology domains: generalized anxiety, obsessions, compulsions, posttraumatic stress, depression, mania, delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thoughts, aggression, negative symptoms, alcohol use, drug use, attention deficit, hyperactivity, anorexia, binge-eating, and bulimia. The SCIP produces numeric data for psychopathological symptoms and signs that can be used for research.
- The SCIP is the only diagnostic interview that reliably measures over 200 symptoms and signs of adult psychopathology.
- The SCIP is adaptable to future diagnostic criteria changes. The building blocks of the SCIP are the symptoms and signs of psychopathology that do not change with time. Whether we have the ICD-10 or beyond, DSM-5 or beyond, the phenomenology of mental disorders remains unchanged and the SCIP will withstand future diagnostic criteria changes.
- The SCIP is the only instrument that transforms routine psychiatric evaluations into data that can be used for research. The SCIP software (under development) can generate data, reports and graphs that can be used for research and patient management.
- As a research tool, the SCIP is compatible with personalized precision psychiatry (PPP), modern experimental psychopathology research and the NIH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC).
