Introduces the IVR-PRIME-MD, diagnostic tool for psychiatric
evaluations in the United States. Features of the tool; Benefits of using
the tool.
By
Annie Murphy Paul, published on January 01, 1998
Can a new computer program conduct psychiatric evaluations as well
as trainedclinicians? Some psychologists say yes--and add that the
computer may even catch problems human interviewers miss.
The IVR-PRIME-MD, as the new diagnostic tool is known, is
administered by computer and accessed by telephone; callers respond to a
series of questions by pushing buttons. Creator Kenneth Kobak, Ph.D.,
reports that computer and clinician interviews identified similar rates
of psychiatric disorders, and that the computer registered higher levels
of alcohol abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)--perhaps because
patients were uncomfortable admitting such behaviors to another person.
It picked up fewer incidences of panic disorder, however, and Kobak, of
the Dean Foundation for Health, in Wisconsin, says that the anxiety part
of the test may require further tinkering.
So will computers come to replace mental health professionals
altogether? Kobak says no: "This program was never intended to substitute
for a doctor. We envision IVR-PRIME-MD as a tool that primary care
physicians can use to better treat their patients," perhaps offering it
as part of an annual checkup. Still, technophobes won't be reassured by
another project now underway at the Dean Foundation:
computer-administered psychotherapy, which Kobak reports has been used to
successfully treat people with depression, OCD, and fear of
flying.
PHOTO (COLOR): Crazy press 1 for yes, 2 for no
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
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primary care physicians,
psychiatric disorders,
technology,
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