Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:867-872
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
Test-retest reliability and validity of the Structured Interview for Sleep Disorders According to DSM-III-R
E Schramm, F Hohagen, U Grasshoff, D Riemann, G Hajak, HG Weess and M Berger
Psychiatric Clinic, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of
sleep disorder diagnoses in DSM-III-R by using a newly developed interview,
the Structured Interview for Sleep Disorders According to DSM-III-R (SIS-D)
and to evaluate the concordance between these diagnoses and sleep
laboratory data. In addition, the sources of disagreements between two
interviewers in the diagnoses given to the same patient were determined.
METHOD: Two different interviewers used the SIS-D to diagnose 68 patients
with complaints of sleep disorders. The concordance between these
interviewers' diagnoses and polysomnographic findings was investigated by
using kappa statistics. RESULTS: There were excellent reliabilities for
almost all current main diagnostic categories and good concordance between
diagnoses made on the basis of the structured interview and
polysomnographic data. The main source of disagreement between interviewers
was found in the symptom information given by the patient. CONCLUSIONS:
These findings provide support for the utility of DSM-III-R sleep disorder
diagnoses and for their retention in DSM-IV. These findings also accord
well with a recent literature review of the DSM-III-R diagnosis of primary
insomnia by the DSM-IV Work Group on Sleep Disorders. The good concordance
between interview diagnoses and polysomnographic data suggests that a
structured interview such as the SIS-D may be a useful screening
instrument. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the
polysomnographic evaluation of chronic insomnia.
