Preliminary Validation of an Online DSM-Based Mental Health Referral Inventory

Abstract

A brief online inventory was developed as a much needed corrective for the hundreds of unscientific tests that are used now by millions of people to self-diagnose mental health problems. The primary purpose of the new inventory is to refer people to mental health professionals for further evaluation when they are experiencing problems that might be diagnosable under DSM guidelines; it is not designed to diagnose, however. The inventory was found to be a valid and reliable measuring instrument based on analysis of data obtained from 3,403 subjects. The 54-item checklist looks for 18 common problems identified in the DSM-IV and takes from 5 to 10 min to complete. Test scores proved to be good predictors of a variety of self-reported criterion measures, including happiness, personal and professional success, history of hospitalization, history of therapy, current participation in therapy, employment, and level of education. Females were found to have slightly more mental health problems than males, but no differences in scores were found by race or ethnicity.

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