Comparison of the General Health Questionnaire and the Cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire.

This study compares the 30-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the psychiatric section of the Cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire (CMI-MR) using normative data from a sample of the general population and data from general practice patients where clinical assessment by a psychiatrist is used as a criterion of psychiatric caseness. In this study the CMI-MR has a slightly better overall performance as a screening test. It appears that the CMI-MR errs in the direction of false negatives when the symptoms are recent and related to situational stress, but the GHQ has a tendency to miss cases with symptoms of long standing.