Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:18:24.755Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Evaluation of the Predictive Power of a Test Known to Differentiate Between Elderly “Functional” and “Organic” Psychiatric Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

James Inglis
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
Catherine Colwell
Affiliation:
The Maudsley Hospital and The Bethlem Royal Hospital, London
Felix Post
Affiliation:
The Maudsley Hospital and The Bethlem Royal Hospital, London

Extract

Few studies of psychological tests which have been shown to differentiate between psychiatric groups have attempted to follow-up the patients originally tested so as to determine what the predictive power of the test might be in the light of subsequent events. One of these few studies has been reported by Walton (1958) and commented upon by Inglis (1959) who was able to show that the test Walton described was better able to predict the outcome of illness after a follow-up period of two years, than was the original diagnostic label. The importance of this kind of study has been pointed out most clearly by Payne (1958). His argument is that, “Description is only one implication of the diagnostic label. Can the test score aid the doctor in making a prognosis? This need not be the case. Let us consider the original validation of the test again. The doctor who diagnosed the standardization group of patients might well be able to give a more or less accurate prognosis for this group of patients. In fact there might be a significant relationship between the presence or absence of the label he assigns, and prognosis. We also know that there is a significant correlation between presence or absence of his label and the test scores. This does not prove, however, that there is any relationship whatsoever between the diagnostic test score and prognosis. Two things which correlate with the same thing do not necessarily correlate with each other, unless the correlations concerned are greater than ·7” (1958, p. 27).

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1960 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Colwell, C., and Post, F., “The Community Needs of Elderly Psychiatric Patients”, Brit. med. J., 1959, ii, 214217.Google Scholar
Field, J., “An investigation of the reproduction of simple designs by elderly psychiatric patients”, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. 1958. University of London Library.Google Scholar
Inglis, J., “An experimental study of learning and ‘memory function’ in elderly psychiatric patients”, J. Ment. Sci., 1957, 103, 796803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem , “On the prognostic value of the modified word learning test in psychiatric patients over 65”, ibid, 1959, 105, 11001101.Google Scholar
McNemar, Q., Psychological Statistics, 1949. London: Chapman ' Hall.Google Scholar
Norris, Vera and Post, F., “Treatment of elderly psychiatric patients: use of a diagnostic classification”, Brit. med. J., 1954, i, 675679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, R. W., “Diagnostic and personality testing in clinical psychology”, Amer. J. Psychiat., 1958, 115, 2529.Google Scholar
Post, F., “The outcome of mental breakdown in old age”, Brit. med. J., 1951, i, 436448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, M., and Morrisey, J. D., “Problems in the Diagnosis and Classification of Mental Disorders of Old Age”, J. Ment. Sci., 1952, 89, 5659.Google Scholar
Shapiro, M. B., Field, J., and Post, F., “An enquiry into the determinants of a differentiation between ‘organic’ and ‘non-organic’ psychiatric patients on the Bender Gestalt test”, ibid., 1957, 103, 364374.Google Scholar
Idem , Post, F., Lofving, Barbro, and Inglis, J., “‘Memory function’ in psychiatric patients over 60. Some methodological and diagnostic implications”, ibid., 1956, 102, 233246.Google Scholar
Walton, D., “The diagnostic and predictive accuracy of the modified word learning test in psychiatric patients over 65”, ibid., 1958, 104, 11191122.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.