M.I.N.I. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview

The South African Government has appointed Soma Initiative, South Africa’s market leader in Health Risk Management as the exclusive Health Risk Manager to assess the purported disability of military veterans in terms of the Military Pensions Act. It is anticipated that over 90% of the estimated 56 000 military veterans to be evaluated will claim disability on psychiatric grounds. After a comprehensive review of diagnostic methodologies, Soma Initiative selected Medical Outcome Systems’ advanced web-based software, Dolphin EDC, as the optimal means of diagnosing psychiatric impairment quickly, reliably and efficiently. The Dolphin EDC system was developed by the author of the M.I.N.I. Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview and assesses the symptoms of psychiatric patients according to DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria.

The M.I.N.I. Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview was designed to meet the need for a short but accurate structured diagnostic psychiatric interview. With an administration time of less than 30 minutes, it is the structured psychiatric interview of choice for psychiatric evaluation and outcome tracking in clinical psychopharmacology trials and epidemiological studies and is used as a first step in outcome tracking in non-research clinical settings.

The M.I.N.I. is the most widely used psychiatric structured diagnostic interview instrument in the world. The M.I.N.I. is used by mental health professionals and health organizations in more than 100 countries. The M.I.N.I. was developed jointly in 1990 by psychiatrists and clinicians in the United States and Europe for DSM-IV and ICD-10 psychiatric disorders led by David V. Sheehan, M.D., M.B.A., Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Psychiatric Research, University of South Florida College of Medicine and Yves Lecrubier, M.D. Centre Hospitalier Sainte-Anne - Paris, France.

The M.I.N.I. has been validated against the much longer Structure Clinical Interview for DSM diagnoses (SCID-P) in English and French and against the Composite International Diagnostic Interview for ICD-10 (CIDI) in English, French and Arabic. It has also been validated against expert opinion in a large sample in four European countries (France, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain).

The Dolphin EDC is a web-based questionnaire, based on the M.I.N.I. methodology and philosophy. It is a mental health assessment tool and treatment outcome tracking solution that allows the conduct of electronic interviews with patients using the latest release of the M.I.N.I. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview version 6.0 (M.I.N.I. 6.0) in English and Spanish and other proven rating scales. Patient progress can also be effectively monitored over time, and it can be quickly and easily established which therapies are most effective. Performance of the M.I.N.I. 6.0 diagnostic structured interviews can be conducted at anytime, anywhere using only a web browser.

The M.I.N.I. programme is not designed or intended to be used in the place of the clinician in the diagnosis of psychiatric conditions. This complex arena requires a full medical and psychiatric evaluation by a qualified licensed physician – psychiatrist. The M.I.N.I. / Dolphin EDC web-based programme is intended only as a tool to facilitate accurate data collection and processing of symptoms elicited by trained personnel.