SCID - Frequently Asked Questions

What is the SCID?

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) is a semi-structured interview for making the major DSM-IV Axis I diagnoses. The SCID-II is a semi-structured interview for making DSM-IV Axis II: Personality Disorder diagnoses.

Can anyone use the SCID?

The instrument is designed to be administered by a clinician or trained mental health professional. Ideally, this will be someone who has had experience performing unstructured diagnostic evaluations. However, for the purposes of some research studies, non-clinician research assistants who have extensive experience with the study population in question have been trained to use the SCID. The less clinical experience the potential interviewer has had, the more training required.

Do you need to have an MD or PhD to be qualified to administer the SCID?

Not necessarily. The most important factors are clinical experience and a willingness to follow the SCID rules. The best qualification for being able to administer a SCID is the ability to conduct a diagnostic evaluation without using the SCID.

What kind of training is available?

The User's Guide for the SCID provides basic training in the use of the SCID. In addition, there is an eleven-hour, 8 DVD training program that includes examples of interviews with actual patients. See the Order Form for prices. Most clinicians will need to spend AT LEAST 20 hours learning how to administer the SCID.  Additional on-site training (primarily consisting of live SCID interview supervision) may be arranged through Biometrics Research, 212-543-5524. For more information, click on Training.

What's the difference between the Clinician and Research versions?

The Clinician Version (SCID-CV) is a streamlined version of the SCID-I-RV (Research Version for Axis I Disorders) and can be ordered directly from American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. One significant difference is in formatting: the SCID-CV is published in two parts--a reusable Administration Booklet (with color-coded tabs) and one-time-use-only score sheets. The Research Version is available only as a single-sided master or as Microsoft Word document files compatible with Windows or Macintosh systems.  Researchers doing studies funded by nonprofit organizations are allowed to modify the Research Version of the SCID and make as many copies as needed for their studies. When the SCID is used by researchers doing studies funded by for-profit organizations (i.e., pharmaceutical companies, HMO's), we require that a per-use fee be paid to Biometrics Research. The licensing fee is $10 per subject for the first hundred subjects and $5 per subject thereafter.  Contact us for additional information regarding this arrangement.  Click the following link for specific details comparing and contrasting the Clinician and Research Versions.

What is the "Clinical Trials" version of the SCID?

The SCID-CT (Clinical Trials) is a version of the SCID being developed in partnership with i3 Research for use in clinical trials. It is essentially a modified version of the SCID-RV (Research Version) that has been reformatted, streamlined, and optimized for use in clinical trials for specific drug indications that incorporate typical inclusion and exclusion criteria.  Versions of the SCID-CT have been developed for clinical trials for drugs with indications for Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. An additional "exclusionary" SCID-CT has also been developed.  This is for situations where the SCID is used only to exclude individuals with disorders listed in the exclusion criteria for the study (e.g., for drug indications for disorders not included in the SCID like adult ADHD). Click here for additional information on the SCID-CT.

What about the different editions of the SCID-I-RV (Patient, Non-patient, Psychotic Screen)?

The SCID-I-RV/P (Patient Edition) is the standard Research version SCID and is designed for use with subjects who are identified as psychiatric patients. For settings in which psychotic disorders are expected to be rare (e.g., an outpatient anxiety clinic) or for studies in which patients with psychotic disorders are being screened out, an abridged edition of the SCID-I-RV/P (SCID-I/P W/ PSYCHOTIC SCREEN) is available. This edition replaces the standard Psychotic Modules (i.e., Modules B and C) with a combined B/C module that includes only screening questions about psychotic symptoms. In addition, the SCID-I-RV/P (W/PSYCHOTIC SCREEN) has an abridged summary score sheet that does not include psychotic disorders. The SCID-I-RV/NP (Non-patient Edition) is for use in studies in which the subjects are not identified as psychiatric patients (e.g., community surveys, family studies, research in primary care). The diagnostic modules of the SCID-I-RV/NP are the same as those of the SCID-I-RV/P (W/PSYCHOTIC SCREEN); the only difference between the two versions is in the Overview section. In the SCID-I-RV/NP there is no assumption of a chief complaint, and other questions are used to inquire about a history of psychopathology.

Where can I get the SCID?

The Clinician Version of the SCID-I (SCID-CV), and the SCID-II, may be purchased from American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. (800-368-5777). For more information, visit the APPI web page. The Research Version of the SCID-I (SCID-I-RV) and a bilingual version of the SCID which contains Spanish translations of the questions (embedded in the English-language SCID) may be purchased directly from Biometrics (see order form).

Are there reliability and validity data on the SCID?

Reliability and validity of the SCID for DSM-III-R and DSM-IV has been reported in several studies. With regard to reliability, the range in reliability is enormous, depending on the nature of the sample and research methodology (i.e., joint vs. test-retest, multi-site vs. single site with raters who have worked together, etc.). Click here for information regarding SCID-I reliability and click here for information regarding SCID-II reliability (including tables summarizing reliability results). Determining the validity is a more difficult question because of the lack of established gold standards for psychiatric diagnoses. In lieu of such a gold standard, "best estimate" diagnoses are often used as the clinical standard. Click here for information regarding SCID-I validity and click here for information regarding SCID-II validity.

What kinds of subjects can be diagnosed using the SCID?

In addition to assessment of current psychiatric patients, the SCID has been used to assess lifetime psychiatric diagnoses in medical patients, family members, community samples, college students, the homeless, the elderly, and in short, any English-speaking adult who is able to participate in the interview.  Although the vast majority of studies have used the SCID on adults, some investigators have successfully administered the SCID to adolescents. Although it is often not possible to administer the SCID interview to subjects who have moderate or severe Mental Retardation or who are otherwise too cognitively impaired to answer the questions, or to subjects are too medically or psychiatrically ill to participate in an interview, the SCID can still be used in those subjects as a tool for gathering and documenting diagnostic information obtained from other sources (e.g., informants, previous records) and then applying the DSM-IV diagnostic algorithms.

What about non-English speakers?

The various versions of the SCID (SCID-I-RV, SCID-CV, SCID-II) have been translated in their entirety (i.e., questions, diagnostic criteria, skip instructions) into a number of languages, including Spanish, French, German, Danish, Italian, Hebrew, Zulu, Turkish, Portuguese and Greek.  A "bilingual" Spanish version of the SCID-RV in which only the questions have been translated into Spanish is also available for order from Biometrics Research. Click here for more information.

How much time does it take to do a SCID?

The administration time of the SCID-I-RV is quite variable and can range from about 15 minutes on the short end (i.e., a subject with virtually no psychopathology or psychiatric history) up to several hours (i.e., a subject with extensive psychiatric comorbidity with a circumstantial style of speech)—the administration time of the full SCID-I-RV for a psychiatric patient likely averages around 90 minutes (whereas the administration time for a non-psychiatric patient is closer to one hour).  The administration time depends on many factors including how many modules of the SCID are being administered, the complexity of the psychiatric history, and the subject’s ability to answer questions clearly and succinctly. Administration time of the SCID II is shorter and most typically takes 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Are there any computerized versions of the SCID?

The Microsoft Word document that make up the SCID-I-RV (Research Version) are available for the purpose of assisting researchers in making modifications to the SCID in order to customize it for their particular study. Click here for more information on how to order it. Multi-Health Systems Inc. of Toronto, Canada (1-800-456-3003; www.mhs.com ), distributes computerized versions of the SCID-CV (called the Computer-Assisted SCID-CV [CAS-CV] and the SCID-II (called the Computer-Assisted SCID-II [CAS-II]).  Please be aware that the CAS-CV still requires that the SCID be administered to the patient by a clinician; hence it is "computer-assisted" rather than "computer-administered."  The CAS-II package does include a computer-administered version of the SCID-II Personality Questionnaire which does not require the participation of a clinician. The CAS-II refers to the patient’s answers to the Personality Questionnaire when determining whether personality disorder item can be skipped (i.e., those items answered "NO" on the questionnaire). 

A computer-assisted version of the SCID-I-RV is currently in development and a beta version is available for testing.  Please contact us for more information.

Are there any versions of the SCID available for disorders not covered in the SCID-RV?

A module for the SCID has been developed for the Impulse Control Disorders (i.e., Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Pyromania, Kleptomania, Pathological Gambling, and Trichotillomania) in collaboration with a number of the leading researchers in Impulse Control Disorders, including Jon Gant, Eric Hollander, Susan McElroy, Lorrin Koran, Andrea Allen, Marc Portenza, Dan Stein, and Larry Siever.  It also includes sections for proposed disorders, such as internet addiction, skin picking, pathological shopping, and compulsive sexual behavior.   Although the instrument has not been formally field tested, we are making it available to interested researchers at no cost.  Please contact Dr. Michael First by e-mail: mbf2@columbia.edu if you are interested in receiving it.

A version of the SCID for use in children (KID-SCID) has been developed by Dr. Fred Matzner (in collaboration with us) and includes sections for the assessment of ADHD, Conduct Disorder, and Oppositional-Defiant Disorder.  Click here for more information.

Please note that despite the similarity in name, SCID-D by Dr. Marlene Steinberg for the assessment of Dissociative Disorders, was developed without our input and is not part of the SCID “family.”