Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Clinician Affective Reactivity Index: Validity and Reliability of a Clinician-Rated Assessment of Irritability

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 51; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.beth.2019.10.005

1878-1888

Simone P. Haller, Katharina Kircanski, Argyris Stringaris, Michal Clayton, Hong Bui, Courtney Agorsor, Sofia I. Cárdenas, Kenneth E. Towbin, Daniel S. Pine, Ellen Leibenluft, Melissa A. Brotman,

Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues

Irritability is impairing in youth and is the core feature of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). Currently, there are no established clinician-rated instruments to assess irritability in pediatric research and clinical settings. Clinician-rated measures ensure consistency of assessment across patients and are important specifically for treatment research. Here, we present data on the psychometric properties of the Clinician Affective Reactivity Index (CL-ARI), the first semistructured interview focused on pediatric irritability. The CL-ARI was administered to a transdiagnostic sample of 98 youth (M age = 12.66, SD = 2.47; 41% female). With respect to convergent validity, CL-ARI scores were (a) significantly higher for youth with DMDD than for any other diagnostic group, and (b) showed uniquely strong associations with other clinician-, parent-, and youth-report measures of irritability compared to measures of related constructs, such as anxiety. The three subscales of the CL-ARI (temper outbursts, irritable mood, impairment) showed excellent internal consistency. Test-retest reliability of the CL-ARI was adequate. These data support that irritability can be feasibly, validly, and reliably assessed by clinicians using the CL-ARI. A validated, gold-standard assessment of pediatric irritability is critical in advancing research and treatment efforts.