The development of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia: item selection, factor structure, reliability and concurrent validity.

Background: Assessments of personality constructs increasingly use self-report and structured interview instruments, which allow for a multimethod measurement approach and decrease specific measurement method bias. The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable structured interview for assessing the alexithymia construct.

Methods: Sixty interview questions were written initially, each with a set of scoring criteria and prompts and probes to elicit information assisting in the scoring of the respondents' answers.

Predictors of professional and personal satisfaction with a career in psychiatry.

Background: Many factors, including personal experience and personality traits, contribute to the emotional difficulties that psychiatrists experience in their professional work. The nature of the work itself also plays a significant role.

Objective: To determine those personal and professional characteristics that predict satisfaction with the practice of psychiatry.

A dimensional approach to personality in atypical depression.

The current study addresses the relationship of personality and atypical depression using the Five-Factor Model (FFM), a dimensional approach to personality. The aim of the study was to help clarify which personality traits are more characteristic of atypical depression than of other depressive subtypes. Outpatients (n=160) with non-psychotic major depression were characterized as having atypical (n=26), or non-atypical depression (n=134) based on DSM-IV criteria.

Gender differences in the practice characteristics and career satisfaction of psychiatrists in Ontario.

Objective: The authors explored practice characteristics, activities, and career satisfaction of male and female psychiatrists.

Method: A questionnaire was mailed to all practicing psychiatrists in Ontario, Canada, to which 52% responded.

Results: More women specialized in child, women's mental health and geriatrics than did men, while men specialized more in forensics and psychosomatics.

Adolescent standardized patients: method of selection and assessment of benefits and risks.

Background: Our psychiatric Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) group wishes to develop adolescent psychiatry OSCE stations. The literature regarding adolescent standardized patient (SP) selection methods and simulation effects, however, offered limited assurance that such adolescents would not experience adverse simulation effects.

Purpose: Evaluation of adolescent SP selection methods and simulation effects for low- and high-stress roles.