Factors Influencing Clinician's Judgments of Mental Health

Abstract

Experiences with use of the Health-Sickness Rating Scale (HSRS), first published in 1962, bear out its original promise. Reliability studies continue to show that clinicians can agree very well in judging mental health. The scale correlates with a variety of more time-consuming observer and patient scales, as well as with judgments of other similar concepts related to mental health. Several studies show that the initial level of the HSRS predicts measures of the outcome of psychotherapy. The HSRS ratings are influenced by the amount of information of the clinician, his relationship with the patient, his own experience, and his training in the use of the scale.