The Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation

TLDR

The Longitudinal Interval Follow‑up Evaluation (LIFE) is an integrated system that tracks the longitudinal course of psychiatric disorders using weekly ordinal symptom‑based ratings and can accommodate any DSM‑III or Research Diagnostic Criteria disorder across any number of follow‑up intervals. The LIFE protocol employs a semistructured interview guided by an instruction booklet, coding sheet, and training materials, during which interviewers gather detailed psychosocial, psychopathologic, and treatment data for each six‑month interval and link these to concurrent psychiatric status ratings.

Abstract

The Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation (LIFE) is an integrated system for assessing the longitudinal course of psychiatric disorders. It consists of a semistructured interview, an Instruction booklet, a coding sheet, and a set of training materials. An interviewer uses the LIFE to collect detailed psychosocial, psychopathologic, and treatment information for a six-month follow-up interval. The weekly psychopathology measures ("psychiatric status ratings") are ordinal symptom-based scales with categories defined to match the levels of symptoms used in the Research Diagnostic Criteria. The ratings provide a separate, concurrent record of the course of each disorder initially diagnosed in patients or developing during the follow-up. Any DSM-III or Research Diagnostic Criteria disorder can be rated with the LIFE, and any length or number of follow-up intervals can be accommodated. The psychosocial and treatment information is recorded so that these data can be linked temporally to the psychiatric status ratings.