The Present State Examination (PSE) has gained increasing acceptance in
psychiatric research. As with any clinical method, its usefulness rests not
only on its reliability and pertinence but also on how successfully it can
be taught. Its teachability is particularly important for American-trained
clinicans, given the wide differences between Anglo- European and American
clinical practices and the fact that the PSE developed from Anglo-European
clinical concepts and techniques. The authors reports that by means of
preliminary phenomenological training and formal PSE demonstrations and
supervised interviews, the PSE can be readily learned by diverse
American-trained clinicians with interrater reliability comparable to that
of British and European clinicians.Abstract Teaser