A comparison of the differential diagnostic efficiency of three personality disorder inventories.

This study was a comparison of the relative diagnostic efficiency of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II, the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales, and the Personality Disorder Questionnaire-Revised. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, Axis II was used as the criterion measure. The operating characteristics of all three objective instruments revealed a high rate of false-positive diagnoses, but negative test results were generally valid. Each instrument was found to possess clinical utility in its ability to improve diagnostic efficiency over base rate predictions for most disorders. It is suggested that many of the psychometric limitations revealed in this study reflect the limitations of DSM-III-R, Axis II.