Can the Computer Assist Clinicians in Psychiatric Diagnosis?
ROBERT L. SPITZER M.D.1, and
JEAN ENDICOTT PH.D.2
1 Director, Evaluation Section, Biometrics Research, New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 West 168th St., New York, N.Y. 10032, and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
2 Co-Director, Evaluation Section, Biometrics Research, New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 West 168th St., New York, N.Y. 10032, and Research Associate, the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
When 100 patients were evaluated by a therapist, DIAGNO III (a computer program for psychiatric diagnosis), and the senior author, the computer's and therapist's diagnoses were in agreement in 65 cases; the senior author's diagnoses agreed with the computer and therapist in 56 of the cases. The authors discuss the situations in which the computer can be most helpful in diagnosis and also point out some factors that reduce the potential of computer analysis. They suggest that despite the difficulties in computerizing data and in simulating the diagnostic process, computers can be of aid in the field of psychiatry as they have already proved to be in other medical specialties.
