The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA)

Abstract

SYNOPSISGreat advances have been made during the last 20 years in the development of structured and semi-structured interviews for use with psychiatric patients. However, in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry there have been weaknesses in the specification and definition of both symptoms and the psychosocial impairments resulting from psychiatric disorder. Furthermore, most of the available interviews for use with children have been tied to a single diagnostic system (DSM-III, DSM-III-R, or ICD-9). This has meant that symptom coverage has been limited and nosological comparisons have been inhibited. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA) represents an attempt to remedy some of these shortcomings. This paper outlines the principles adopted in the CAPA to improve the standardization, reliability and meaningfulness of symptom and diagnostic ratings. The CAPA is an interviewer-based diagnostic interview with versions for use with children and their parents, focused on symptoms occurring during the preceding 3 month period, adapted for assessments in both clinical and epidemiological research.

C-reactive protein and substance use disorders in adolescence and early adulthood: A prospective analysis

“…Addiction was defined as abuse and/or dependence (O'Brien et al, 2006) as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, 4 th edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Interviewers used the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA) until age 16, and after that using its upward extension, the Young Adult Psychiatric Assessment (YAPA; Angold and Costello, 2000, Angold et al, 1999). These structured interviews were administered, coded, and checked by trained interviewers.…”

Neurodevelopmental problems in maltreated children referred with indiscriminate friendliness

“…During the home visit demographic data were collected, and parents completed three questionnaires: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) investigating a wide range of child psychiatric symptoms (Goodman, Ford, Simmons, Gatward, & Meltzer, 2003), the Relationships Problems Questionnaire (RPQ) investigating RAD symptoms (Angold et al, 1995;Minnis et al, 2009) and the 'Life Change Scale' to monitor current or recent life stresses (Foxman, 2004). Parents were then interviewed using two semi-structured measures: the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) (Goodman, Ford, Richards, & et al, 2000) to investigate psychopathology and the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment, RAD module (CAPA-RAD) to investigate RAD (Minnis, Pelosi, Taylor, O'Connor, & Barnes, 2006).…”

Association study between a polymorphism at the 3'-untranslated region of CLOCK gene and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…The age range was 5-15 years at the time of assessment (mean 10.41, SD 2.34). Parents were interviewed with a modified version of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA) [35]. Information on ADHD symptoms at school was obtained using the long form of the Conner's questionnaire [36].…”