Clinical Psychometrics is an introduction to the long-term attempt to measure the psychiatric dimension of dementia, schizophrenia, mania, depression, anxiety, neuroticism, extraversion/introversion and health-related quality of life. The two psychometric procedures, classical factor analysis and modern item-response models, are presented for readers without any requirement for particular mathematical or statistical knowledge. The book is unique in this attempt and provides helpful background information for the dimensional approach that is being used in the forthcoming updates to the diagnostic classification systems, ICD-11 and DSM-5. The book is written for everyone who is interested in the origins and development of modern psychiatry, and who wants to be familiar with its practical possibilities; how it is possible to compare different individuals with each other, how one may determine the boundary between what is normal and what is disease, or how one may assess the clinical effect of the various forms of treatment, available to present day psychiatry.

Clinical Psychometrics is an introduction to the long-term attempt to measure the psychiatric dimension of dementia, schizophrenia, mania, depression, anxiety, neuroticism, extraversion/introversion and health-related quality of life.The two psychometric procedures, classical factor analysis and modern item-response models, are presented for readers without any requirement for particular mathematical or statistical knowledge. The book is unique in this attempt and provides helpful background information for the dimensional approach that is being used in the forthcoming updates to the diagnostic classification systems, ICD-11 and DSM-5.The book is written for everyone who is interested in the origins and development of modern psychiatry, and who wants to be familiar with its practical possibilities; how it is possible to compare different individuals with each other, how one may determine the boundary between what is normal and what is disease, or how one may assess the clinical effect of the various forms of treatment, available to present day psychiatry.

About the author, ixPreface, xIntroduction, 11. Classical psychometrics, 3Emil Kraepelin: Symptom check list and pharmacopsychology, 6Charles Spearman: Factor analysis and intelligence tests, 10Harold Hotelling: Principal Component Analysis, 13Hans Eysenck: Factor analysis and personality questionnaires, 15Max Hamilton: Factor analysis and rating scales, 20Pierre Pichot: Symptom rating scales and clinical validity, 232. Modern psychiatry: DSM-IV/ICD-10, 27Focusing on reliability, 27Focusing on validity, 28Quantitative, dimensional diagnosis, 293. Modern dimensional psychometrics, 32Ronald A. Fisher: From Galton's pioneer work to the sufficient statistic, 32Georg Rasch: From Guttman's pioneer work to item response theory analysis (IRT), 34Sidney Siegel: Non-parametric statistics, 38Robert J. Mokken: Non-parametric analysis for item response theory (IRT), 394. Modern psychometrics: Item categories and sufficient statistics, 43Rensis Likert: Scale step measurements, 43John Overall: Brief, sufficient rating scales, 45Clinical versus psychometric validity, 48Item-response theory versus factor analysis, 49Jacob Cohen: Effect size, 505. The clinical consequence of IRT analyses: The pharmacopsychometric triangle, 53Effect size and clinical significance, 53The pharmacopsychometric triangle, 56Antidementia medication, 59Antipsychotic medication, 60Antimanic medication, 65Antidepressive medication, 66Antianxiety medication, 69Mood stabilising medications, 72Combination of antidepressants, 736. The clinical consequence of IRT analyses: Health-related quality of life, 74The WHO-5 Questionnaire, 787. The clinical consequences of IRT analyses: The concept of stress, 82Post-traumatic stress disorder, 82The work-related stress condition, 84Integration of Selye's medical stress model, 858. Questionnaires as 'blood tests', 89Population studies in depression and anxiety, 89The predictive validity of WHO-5, 92Screening scales, 929. Summary and perspectives, 9510. Epilogue: Who's carrying Einstein's baton?, 103Glossary, 109Appendices, 114References, 185Index, 196