Reliability and Validity of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID)

Objective: To investigate the concurrent validity and reliability of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID), a short structured diagnostic interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10 psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents.

Method: Participants were 226 children and adolescents (190 outpatients and 36 controls) aged 6 to 17 years. To assess the concurrent validity of the MINI-KID, participants were administered the MINI-KID and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) by blinded interviewers in a counterbalanced order on the same day. Participants also completed a self-rated measure of disability. In addition, interrater (n = 57) and test-retest (n = 83) reliability data (retest interval, 1-5 days) were collected, and agreement between the parent version of the MINI-KID and the standard MINI-KID (n = 140) was assessed. Data were collected between March 2004 and January 2008.

Results: Substantial to excellent MINI-KID to K-SADS-PL concordance was found for syndromal diagnoses of any mood disorder, any anxiety disorder, any substance use disorder, any ADHD or behavioral disorder, and any eating disorder (area under curve [AUC] = 0.81-0.96, κ = 0.56-0.87). Results were more variable for psychotic disorder (AUC = 0.94, κ = 0.41). Sensitivity was substantial (0.61-1.00) for 15/20 individual DSM-IV disorders. Specificity was excellent (0.81-1.00) for 18 disorders and substantial (> 0.73) for the remaining 2. The MINI-KID identified a median of 3 disorders per subject compared to 2 on the K-SADS-PL and took two-thirds less time to administer (34 vs 103 minutes). Interrater and test-retest kappas were substantial to almost perfect (0.64-1.00) for all individual MINI-KID disorders except dysthymia. Concordance of the parent version (MINI-KID-P) with the standard MINI-KID was good.

Conclusions: The MINI-KID generates reliable and valid psychiatric diagnoses for children and adolescents and does so in a third of the time as the K-SADS-PL.

Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00579267

J Clin Psychiatry 2010;71(3):313-326

Submitted: April 19, 2009; accepted July 23, 2009.

Corresponding author: David V. Sheehan, MD, MBA, Depression & Anxiety Disorders Research Institute, University of South Florida College of Medicine, 3515 East Fletcher Ave, Tampa, FL 33613-4706 (dsheehan@health.usf.edu).