Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To test the reliability and applicability of Urdu translation of the International personality disorder examination (IPDE) in a psychiatric outpatient population in Pakistan. METHODS: This study was conducted at the outpatient department of Fatima Memorial Hospital Lahore from April 2012 to March 2013. Patients considered to have a personality disorder by a psychiatrist were initially screened by the IPDE screening questionnaire. Those who scored positive on screening were evaluated in a detailed interview using IPDE. Two interviewers conducted the interviews simultaneously, to ensure inter-rater reliability. For translation, permission was taken from World Health Organization. Linguistic equivalence was assessed through back- translation and conceptual equivalence through opinion of mental health experts. The final Urdu draft was obtained after incorporating modifications suggested by experts following a feasibility study. The analysis was carried out using SPSS v.20. RESULTS: Out of 30 enrolled patients, 25(83.3%) were females. The mean age of the sample was 28.5+6.08 years. Majority of patients had more than one personality disorder. Most prevalent personality disorder was emotionally unstable borderline type with a phi correlation of 0.831, followed by emotionally unstable impulsive type and anankastic personality disorder with phi correlations of 0.930 and 0.867, respectively, for definite cases. Correlation coefficient for dimensional scores between the two raters was 0.392 for paranoid personality disorder, 0.842 for anankastic and around 0.9 for the rest of the personality disorders, each. CONCLUSION: Urdu translation of IPDE is a reliable tool to screen and diagnose personality disorders in population of Pakistan.