The Hopkins Symptom Check List-25 (HSCL-25) is a screening instrument designed to identify common psychiatric symptoms. It has been widely used in different settings outside Sweden and also compared to assessment of psychiatric illness made by general practitioners. The aim of the present study was to validate the HSCL-25 against a psychiatric interview using the Present State Examination (PSE-9) in a Swedish sample of patients in general practice. Validity coefficients of the HSCL-25 were calculated for two different thresholds of caseness, > or = 1.55 and > or = 1.75, respectively. When > or = 1.75 was chosen as a cutoff point, the validity coefficients obtained by the HSCL-25 in this study were comparable to those obtained in other studies.

The prevalence of mental illness in five different Scandinavian primary care populations was investigated in this study. Patients consecutively consulting their general practitioner a particular week-day were included in the study. Initially the SCL-25 was applied and next the high scores and a sample of the low scores were interviewed by the PSE. In the analysis the screening procedure was first validated. The internal validity of the SCL was tested by means of Rasch latent structure analysis and the external validity tested by ROC/QROC analysis. Based on this, a short 8-item version of the SCL was developed. The prevalence of mental illness in all centres was 0.26 with a minimum of 0.14 in Nacka and a maximum of 0.34 in Turku.

Brief intervention seems to be effective to reduce hazardous alcohol consumption in psychiatric outpatients.

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This study addresses three questions. First, what is the long-term psychosocial outcome for severely head-injured patients? Second, is an increased survival rate associated with an increase in the number of patients with a poor quality of life? Third, do rehabilitation services affect the final outcome? The long-term outcome was assessed by means of questionnaires for self-ratings, interviews with patients and relatives and neurophysical examinations. One hundred and six patients initially judged as good recovery/moderate disability (GR/MD) 6 months post-injury participated in the study. Forty to 50% of these patients showed co-ordination disturbances; more than 20% had speech disorders and cranial nerve deficits. Twenty-eight per cent had psychiatric symptom scores on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) indicating need of treatment. Social function according to the Social Adjustment Scale--Self-Report (SAS--SR) showed that 40% had problems concerning interpersonal relations and 20-30% had problems within the field of leisure activities, but few problems were reported on work activities and economy. The Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) revealed that hostile feelings, failing memory and fatiguability were common symptoms and were reported by relatives in 71%, 52% and 48%, respectively, but the mean distress levels were moderate. A correlation was seen between quality of life reported by relatives and the degree of mental and social disability according to the Bond Outcome Scale, but the correlation to neurophysical handicap was rather weak. The majority of patients were able to return to a productive social life. The proportion of patients with a poor long-term outcome did not increase after introduction of an aggressive management protocol for head injuries. Data indicated that improvements in facilities for rehabilitation may positively affect psychosocial adjustment.