Development and validation of software for Internet and PC SCID administration

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The SCID is the 'gold standard' for all research-based mental health diagnoses in the United States and for CNS clinical trials worldwide. But, it has been expensive and cumbersome to administer. In Phase I and II of this project we successfully developed the NetSCID, a highly flexible software package for administering the SCID. In this Phase II competing renewal project, we propose to enhance the NetSCID diagnostic software package to make it compliant with DSM-5. In addition, we intend to create 4 standardized 'official translations' of the NetSCID into Chinese, Russian, Latin American Spanish, and French. Together these languages represent between 30 and 50% of the world's population, when one includes native and secondary languages spoken. Our Phase II study indicated that the NetSCID is preferred my 75% of clinician relative to the paper SCID and it has been shown to reduce branching and data entry errors. In addition the program contains a database with the patient's response to every item. This same database will also be shared between all languages. Because of the existence of a single searchable database, the NetSCID will give researchers the ability to identify 'clusters of symptoms' rather than just the DSM diagnoses associated with a study result. The president of the APA has suggested that the validity of the DSM must be based on research on 'clusters of symptoms' as they appear in research studies rather than on fixed categories of symptoms as they have traditionally existed in DSM. The NIH has also established in the RDoC strategic plan initiative that DSM diagnoses do not map well to human genes. Because of its unique ability to be used to identify 'clusters of symptoms' in addition to diagnoses, the NetSCIDmay facilitate the development of future versions of the DSM and it may also facilitate the identification of genes that may be more closely associated with specific symptom clusters than DSM diagnoses. The NetSCID will also enable researchers to identifyclusters of symptoms in CNS trials that may respond better to an intervention than would be suggested by comparison with traditional diagnostic categories. This could also facilitate the development of 'personalized medicine'. Because the NetSCID for DSM-5would immediately allow for these new types of research and because the four additional 'official translations' will promote global clinical trials and cross-cultural research with 30 to 50% of the world's population, we believe that this project could have a lasting global impact. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This Phase II Competing Renewal project proposes the development of five timely NetSCID products, all based on the DSM-5 (NetSCID-5): (1) an English NetSCID-5, (2) a Chinese NetSCID-5, (3) a French NetSCID- 5, (4) a Russian NetSCID-5, and (5) a Latin American Spanish NetSCID-5. In the process of creating these products, we will also produce more culturally sensitive and standardized translations of the SCID-5 in Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. Together, these NetSCID products will represent five of the six official languages of the World Health Organization (WHO, 2011) as well as the five most widely spoken languages in the world, counting bilingual individuals (Ethnologue, 2011). Access to NetSCID-5 in each of the 5 languages will ensure that clinicians and researchers across the globe have flexible access to a rigorous standardized diagnostic assessment that will be up-to-date with the latest mental health diagnostic definitions, specifically those released wit DSM-5, for the purposes of improving clinical practice as well as cross-cultural research and our understanding of the true burden of mental illness on a global scale.