Clinical psychometrics is a “missing book” in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. It is a short, deep and concise book that covers the whole history of psychometrics, starting in the past but continuing up to the last tendencies in the field.
The book is divided into 10 short chapters: 1) Classical psychometrics; 2) Modern psychiatry: DSM-IV/ICD-10; 3) Modern dimensional psychometrics; 4) Modern psychometrics: item categories and sufficient statistics; 5) The clinical consequences of item response theory (IRT) analyses: the pharmacopsychometric triangle; 6) The clinical consequences of IRT analyses: health-related quality of life; 7) The clinical consequences of IRT analyses: the concept of stress; 8) Questionnaires as “blood tests”; 9) Summary and perspectives; and 10) Epilogue: who's carrying Einstein’s baton.
Avoiding mathematical formulas and focusing on concepts that a clinician should deal with, one central concept of the author is the pharmacopsychometric triangle in which A covers the desired clinical effect, B covers the side effects or unwanted effects, and C covers the patient-reported quality of life.
Per Bech received his medical degree in 1969 from the Copenhagen University. He was Professor of Psychiatry at Odense University and, in 2008, he was appointed Professor of Applied or Clinical Psychometrics at Copenhagen University. Prof. Bech is internationally recognized for many original contributions in the field, including the excellent Depression and Mania scales (Bech-Rafaelsen Melancholia Scale, the Bech-Rafaelsen Mania Scale) and original analyses about classical scales.
Clinical psychometrics is an excellent summary of Prof. Bech’s views about psychometrics. Moreover, it is also an excellent book for any psychiatrist and mental health professional who wants to read a book about the critical issues of psychometrics.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
Jul-Sep 2013
