Objective: As part of the DSM-IV field trial for psychotic disorders, the authors endeavoured to determine the reliability of the DSM-IV prodromal features for schizophrenia in a first-episode sample.
Method: Fifty first-episode psychotic patients were assessed using a semi-structured instrument to determine the presence/absence of nine prodromal symptoms. Inter-rater reliability data were calculated for 25 of the patients, and test-retest data were calculated for the remaining 25 patients.
Results: Levels of reliability were poor.
Conclusions: The results lend some support to American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization decisions to omit specific criteria for prodromal features from their respective nosologies.