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A Rating Scale for Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Based on the DSM-IV Item Pool

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Abstract

DSM IV includes three clusters of items that are used to establish diagnoses for the Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Attention Deficit, Conduct, and Oppositional Defiant. In this report, we examine the feasibility of using the items in each cluster to form a rating scale. We studied eighty-four consecutive school-aged referrals to an inner-city child and adolescent Psychiatry clinic. Case diagnosis was established with a clinician's KID-SCID assessment. Parents and teachers rated the 41 DSM items on four-point scales, and completed the Conners' Rating Scales, in English or Spanish. In this paper we report psychometrics of the new scale, the Rating Scale for Disruptive Behavior Disorders (RS-DBD), along with the agreement among parents and teachers, and concurrence between the new scales and the relevant Conners' scales. While, the parent and teacher ratings may provide a useful index for severity of behavioral disturbance in the home and school environments, it will not establish a diagnosis. There was a great deal of comorbidity among diagnostic groups.

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Correspondence to Raul R. Silva M.D..

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Silva, R.R., Alpert, M., Pouget, E. et al. A Rating Scale for Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Based on the DSM-IV Item Pool. Psychiatr Q 76, 327–339 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-005-4966-x

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