Course of the field trial

The first patients entered the study in April 1988 and the last subject was examined in December 1990. All record forms were returned to the project coordinator (AW Loranger), who verified them for completeness and contacted the centers regarding missing data or apparent errors in recording. The information was then entered in a computer at the ADAMHA data processing facility at Rockville, Maryland. In August 1991 the investigators met at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva to review the results of the data analysis. At the meeting they also discussed the replies to a questionnaire that had been sent to all of the interviewers about the strengths and limitations of the IPDE, including its user friendliness, cultural relevance, and apparent clinical validity.

Patient sample

At the conclusion of the study, 716 patients had been examined, 243 reexamined, and 141 of the IPDE interviews rated by an observer. The average interval between the initial and repeat IPDE examinations was six months, with approximately 85% of the repetitions occurring between two months and one year. Table 1 provides the sample sizes of the subjects at each centre, together with the number of IPDE examiners. Table 2 contains information about the educational level of the patients. Their clinical ICD-10 diagnoses, exclusive of personality disorders (PDs), are presented in Table 3.

Personality disorder diagnoses

The IPDE personality disorder diagnoses in the DSM-III-R and ICD-10 systems are presented in Table 4.