The Relationship of Diagnosis and Target Symptoms to Psychotropic Drug Assignment

The authors investigated the ability of a computer, using a set of statistical equations, to assign a psychotropic drug to a patient based on the patient’s mental status. The overall percentage of agreement (hit rate) between computer assignment & actual clinical assignment of drugs was 62%. Inspection of the variables used suggests that the clinician’s diagnosis influences his drug choice substantially more than does his observation of target symptoms or mental status. (CI)