A Preliminary Study on the Specificity and Sensitivity Values and Inter-Rater Reliability of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) in Malaysia

Objective: the mini international neuropsychiatric interview (mini) is a short, structured diagnostic interview compatible with the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-iv (dsm-iv). it was designed for clinical practice, research in psychiatric, primary care settings and epidemiological surveys. this preliminary study aims to evaluate the reliability and validity of the malaysian version of mini for major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder symptoms criteria only. methods: six hours of mini training was given as part of a national health morbidity survey training program for layman interviewers (n=229) and three videos were prepared by an expert psychiatrist for inter-rater reliability purposes. meanwhile, for validity purposes, the mini was administered to patients with major depressive disorder (n=30), generalized anxiety disorder (n=20) and to a normal population (n=60), to conform against the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder (dsm-iv) that was administered by psychiatrists. results: overall the inter-rater reliability was satisfactory (0.67 to 0.85) and the concordance between the mini's and expert diagnoses was good, with kappa values of greater than 0.88. conclusions: the malay version of the mini is adjusted to the clinical setting and for the assessment of positive cases in a community setting. modifications were highlighted to correct any identified problems and to improve the reliability of the mini for future research and clinical use