Development and validation of software for Internet and PC SCID administration

Telesage, Inc., Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

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 & 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 NetSCID may 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 identify clusters 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-5 would 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.