Psychiatry Research
Volume 112, Issue 2 , Pages 153-159, 10 October 2002

A novel approach to assess inter-rater reliability in the use of the Overt Aggression Scale-Modified

  • Jean Endicott

      Affiliations

    • New York State Psychiatric Institute, Unit 123, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +1-212-543-5536; fax: +1-212-543-5386
    • ,
  • Katherine Tracy

      Affiliations

    • Abbott Laboratories, 200 Abbott Park Road, Department R42C-AP30, Abbott Park, IL 60064-6148, USA
    • University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
    • ,
  • David Burt

      Affiliations

    • Abbott Laboratories, 200 Abbott Park Road, Department R42C-AP30, Abbott Park, IL 60064-6148, USA
    • ,
  • Evelyn Olson

      Affiliations

    • Abbott Laboratories, 200 Abbott Park Road, Department R42C-AP30, Abbott Park, IL 60064-6148, USA
    • ,
  • Emil F Coccaro

      Affiliations

    • University of Chicago, Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, 5841 S. Maryland, Mail Code 3077, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Received 19 February 2002; received in revised form 19 July 2002; accepted 25 July 2002.

Abstract 

The ability of raters to apply measures of efficacy accurately and reproducibly in clinical trials of psychotropic medications is vital to the validity of study data. In a large, multi-center trial using the Overt Aggression Scale-Modified (OAS-M), inter-rater reliability was evaluated using standardized patients (SP) in a live ‘mock’ interview. Thirty raters experienced in the OAS-M each interviewed two actors trained to portray patients with intermittent explosive disorder, borderline and antisocial personality disorder, and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. Inter-rater reliability of OAS-M scores was evaluated using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). The joint reliability of the raters in the study with an expert rater was also assessed by an ICC. The ICC was 0.96 between the raters, and 0.98 between the raters and expert rater. Results suggest that SP can be utilized in rater assessment and that raters administering the OAS-M in this model of rater reliability assessment demonstrate a high level of consistency and reliability. The method described here may be useful in future assessments of inter-rater reliability.

Keywords:  Overt Aggression Scale-Modified, Inter-rater reliability, Mood rating scale, Aggression

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PII: S0165-1781(02)00185-3

Psychiatry Research
Volume 112, Issue 2 , Pages 153-159, 10 October 2002

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