Reliability and Validity of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID)

Objective: To investigate the concurrent validity and reliability of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID), a short structured diagnostic interview for DSM-IV and ICD-I 0 psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. Method: Participants were 226 children and adolescents (190 outpatients and 36 controls) aged 6 to 17 years. To assess the concurrent validity of the MINIKID, participants were administered the MINI-KID and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) by blinded interviewers in a counterbalanced order on the same day. Participants also completed a self-rated measure of disability. In addition, interrater (n =57) and test-retest (n =83) reliability data (retest interval, 1-5 days) were collected, and agreement between the parent version of the MINI-KID and the standard MINI-KID (n =140) was assessed. Data were collected between March 2004 and January 2008. Results: Substantial to excellent MINI-KID to K-SADS-PL concordance was found for syndromal diagnoses of any mood disorder, any anxiety disorder, any substance use disorder, any ADHD or behavioral disorder, and any eating disorder (area under curve [AUG] =0.81-0.96, kappa=0.56-0.87). Results were more variable for psychotic disorder (AUC =0.94, kappa=0.41). Sensitivity was substantial (0.61-1.00) for 15/20 individual DSM-IV disorders. Specificity was excellent (0.81-1.00) for 18 disorders and substantial (>0.73) for the remaining 2. The MINI-KID identified a median of 3 disorders per subject compared to 2 on the K-SADSPL and took two-thirds less time to administer (34 vs 103 minutes). Interrater and test-retest kappas were substantial to almost perfect (0.64-1.00) for all individual MINI-KID disorders except dysthymia. Concordance of the parent version (MINI-KID-P) with the standard MINI-KID was good. Conclusions: The MINI-KID generates reliable and valid psychiatric diagnoses for children and adolescents and does so in a third of the time as the K-SADS-PL. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00579267 J Clin Psychiatry 2010;71(3):313-326 (C) Copyright 2010 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.