EVALUATION OF A PSYCHIATRIC SCREENING TEST
Cornell Word Form-I
GEORGE SASLOW M. D., and
FRANK O. SHOBE M. D.
1. Evaluation of a psychiatric screening test, Cornell Word Form-1, was carried out in terms of the criterion: clinically evident psychiatric illness.
2. At the more effective scoring level recommended (5, or more, significant responses), 53% of 337 known psychiatrically ill patients were correctly identified.
3. At the same scoring level, 32% of 100 patients identified as presumably psychiatrically ill were found on psychiatric examination not to be so, i. e., were false positives.
4. At scoring level 5, the test identified about 15% of, a university student sample as presumably psychiatrically ill; and in this agreed closely with similar and dissimilar tests applied to other university student populations.
5. The significance of the regularities observed is not clear.
6. The test missed 97% of psychiatrically ill medical students at scoring level 9, and 81% at scoring level 5.
7. Routine medical examination by senior medical students and their instructors identified 20-30% medical clinic patients as presumably psychiatrically ill, with a probable minimum of 13% missed, and 6% false positives.
