Development of the RMT20, a composite screener to identify common mental disorders

Abstract

Background There are few very brief measures that accurately identify multiple common mental disorders. Aims The aim of this study was to develop and assess the psychometric properties of a new composite measure to screen for five common mental disorders. Method Two cross-sectional psychometric surveys were used to develop (n = 3175) and validate (n = 3620) the new measure, the Rapid Measurement Toolkit-20 (RMT20) against diagnostic criteria. The RMT20 was tested against a DSM-5 clinical checklist for major depression, generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, with comparison with two measures of general psychological distress: the Kessler-10 and Distress Questionnaire-5. Results The area under the curve for the RMT20 was significantly greater than for the distress measures, ranging from 0.86 to 0.92 across the five disorders. Sensitivity and specificity at prescribed cut-points were excellent, with sensitivity ranging from 0.85 to 0.93 and specificity ranging from 0.73 to 0.83 across the five disorders. Conclusions The RMT20 outperformed two established scales assessing general psychological distress, is free to use and has low respondent burden. The measure is well-suited to clinical screening, internet-based screening and large-scale epidemiological surveys.

Guided internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in patients with borderline personality disorder: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder (PD), PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD) are assessed using the Rapid Measurement Toolkit-20 ( RMT-20 ) ( Batterham et al, 2020 ). The RMT-20 is a self-report questionnaire with five times four items, rated on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always), assessing the severity of each disorder.…”

“…Higher scores indicate higher anxiety or depression severity. The RMT-20 has high internal consistency and excellent sensitivity and specificity ( Batterham et al, 2020 ).…”

A randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of time-restricted eating versus Mediterranean diet on symptoms and quality of life in bipolar disorder

“…To harmonize our findings with those of other Wellcome Trust grants, we included three measures as secondary outcome measures: the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0-Brief (WHODAS 2.0-Brief; [99]), GAD-7 [137] and the panic, social anxiety and PTSD subscales of the Rapid Measurement Toolkit (RMT20; [138]). The WHODAS 2.0-Brief is a 12-item survey that assesses overall role functioning across major life domains.…”

“…The GAD-7 is a commonly used measure of generalized anxiety symptoms. The RMT20 is a brief screening tool developed using IRT analyses and well validated against clinical diagnoses [ 138 ].…”

Do Better Nights Lead to Better Days? Guided Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in People Suffering from a Range of Mental Health Problems: Protocol of a Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trial

“…Adults (≥ 18 years) will be able to enrol in the study when they experience clinically relevant insomnia symptoms (ISI ≥10 (Morin, Belleville [41]) and clinically relevant complaints according to the RMT-20 [42]) or the BPD-C [43,44]) meeting at least one of the cut-offs on the subscales for PTSD (≥8), SAD (≥12), PD (≥9), GAD (≥11) and/or BPD (≥14). A clinically relevant increased score on RMT20-MDD subscale is not a sufficient inclusion criterion, because prior studies have shown the use of iCBT-I in various populations with MDD.…”