The psychopathological and somatic symptoms documented by the AMDP-system on the admission of 1654 patients to the Psychiatric Clinics of the Universities in München und 659 patients in Berlin were factor analyzed. Eight factors could be extracted which describe the psychopathology on eight syndrome-scales. These factors could be cross-validated by factor analyses on random samples. In correspondence with the factors of the AMP-system the following syndromes were found: paranoid-hallucinatory, depressive, psycho-organic, manic, hostility, autonomic, apathy, obsessive-compulsive. For each of the 70 items which were associated with a factor we computed the percentage occurrence and item-scale-intercorrelations, for each of the eight syndrome-scales reliability-coefficients, intercorrelations and T-transformations. For further data-reduction second-order-factors were also computed.
The symptoms of 2269 psychiatric patients on admission, documented by the AMP (PAS) system, were factor-analysed to build syndromes of psychopathology. The nine syndromes could be cross-validated. We believe a useful description of the findings on admission can be made by the following syndromes: paranoid-hallucinatory, manic, psycho-organic, depressive, apathetic, hostile, stuporous, somatic, compulsive. The correlation with other syndromes based on AMP by other scientists is substantial. For each item we computed the percentage of occurrence and the item-scale correlation, and for the syndrome-scales reliability, intercorrelations and T-transformations. We calculated the mean profiles for some diagnostic groups to test some aspects of the validity of the syndromes. It was demonstrated that a differentiation is possible.
In a sample of more than 2000 patients from the Department of Psychiatry of the Free University of Berlin (58.8% men, and 41.2% women), the sex differences in the diagnostic distribution and in the severity of the depressive symptomatology were investigated on the basis of data documented by the AMP system. Due to patient selection by the hospital, men with depressive neuroses were found to be over-represented contrary to expectation; depressive psychoses, however, were prevalent in women as expected. In the total group of patients, depressive symptomatology at the symptom and syndrome levels prevailed in women. Within homogeneous diagnostic groups, depressiveness in minor depressive disorders like depressive neuroses was more severe in women, but in psychotic depression men were more seriously depressed than women. Attempts are made to interpret these findings on the basis of constitution-biological and role-theoretical concepts, but especially on the basis of sex-specific help-seeking behaviour.
The Association for Methodology and Documentation in Psychiatry was founded in 1965 by a-group of psychiatrists from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It developed a uniform and comprehensive system for the documentation of psychopathological, somatic, and anamnestic findings, the AMP-System. In 1979 a revised system was introduced, the AMDP-System (5). SYNDROME SCALES IN THE AMDP-SYSTEMThe sheets "psychopathological symptoms" and "somatic signs" of the AMP-System contain 180 items. A data-reduction by means of factor-analyses seemed desirable for the examination of syndromes which are postulated as a result of clinical experiences; furthermore, it seemed necessary not only to examine clinical syndromes but also to make suggestions as to syndrome scales. Thus, the scales based on factor-analyses are further evaluated by means of the methods of classical test-theory. There are five different syndrome solutions in the AMP-System, calculated in five different samples of four different clinics with not identical methods (1). In spite of this, most authors have interpreted nine factors which show a good comparability across the 5 solutions. In our own factor analysis, the symptoms of 2269 patients on admission to the clinic of Berlin were factor-analysed to build syndromes of psychopathology. The syndromes could be cross-validated, they satisfy teststatistical criteria.In order to obtain final AMDP scales right after the revision
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