What! Another Rating Scale? The Psychiatric Evaluation Form

The Psychiatric Evaluation Form (PEF) is a new rating scale designed to record scaled judgments of a subject's functioning during a 1-week period. It covers dimensions of psychopathology of traditional interest (the mental status examination), as well as alcoholism, drug addiction, sociopathic behavior, impairment in daily routine and leisure time, and the roles of housekeeper, wage earner, student, mate, and parent. An optional interview guide is provided and may be used as an aid to assure coverage of the areas on which judgments are required. In addition to 19 scales that tap specific dimensions of psychopathology and functioning, there is a summary scoring system based upon a factor analysis of data from a large sample of newly admitted inpatients. A summary role impairment score can also be obtained by using data from the five individual role impairment scales. The PEF scales (both individual and summary) have been shown to have high interjudge reliability when the judgments are made by trained raters. The scale scores discriminate between diagnostic groups and other groups expected to differ on various dimensions and reflect changes in levels and kinds of psychopathology when used repeatedly with the same subjects. Individuals from a variety of disciplines and with various levels of education and clinical experience have been trained to use the PEF with a degree of reliability and validity satisfactory for research purposes. Teaching tapes, a training manual, and suggested procedures for training interviewers are available. The provision of an interview schedule and the inclusion of dimensions of functioning not generally included in most currently available rating scales has made the PEF valuable in a wide variety of research endeavors.