The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). A short diagnostic structured interview: reliability and validity according to the CIDI

Summary The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) is a short diagnostic structured interview (DSI) developed in France and the United States to explore 17 disorders according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-III-R diagnostic criteria. It is fully structured to allow administration by non-specialized interviewers. In order to keep it short it focuses on the existence of current disorders. For each disorder, one or two screening questions rule out the diagnosis when answered negatively. Probes for severity, disability or medically explained symptoms are not explored symptom-by-symptom. Two joint papers present the inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the MINI the validity versus the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) (this paper) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R patients (SCID) (joint paper). Three-hundred and forty-six patients (296 psychiatric and 50 non-psychiatric) were administered the MINI and the CIDI ‘gold standard’. Forty two were interviewed by two investigators and 42 interviewed subsequently within two days. Interviewers were trained to use both instruments. The mean duration of the interview was 21 min with the MINI and 92 for corresponding sections of the CIDI. Kappa coefficient, sensitivity and specificity were good or very good for all diagnoses with the exception of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (kappa = 0.36), agoraphobia (sensitivity = 0.59) and bulimia (kappa = 0.53). Interrater and test-retest reliability were good. The main reasons for discrepancies were identified. The MINI provided reliable DSM-III-R diagnoses within a short time frame, The study permitted improvements in the formulations for GAD and agoraphobia in the current DSM-IV version of the MINI.