Background: Little is known about the emotional responses of participants in community surveys to standardised psychiatric interviews like the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). This study investigates the proportion of subjects responding negatively or positively to the CIDI, and identifies their sociodemographic, psychopathological, personality and social characteristics.
Methods: At the end of the three-wave Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study, 4796 participants aged 18-64 at baseline were questioned about how the interviews had affected them.
Results: In all, 2.7% found the interviews quite distressing and 9.5% somewhat distressing. Compared to those without distress, they were more likely to be female, not living with a partner, not in paid employment, and to have a somatic disorder. A total of 5.7% of subjects reported that participation had helped them cope better with problems, and 3.4% reported they could now seek help more easily. These were more likely to be older, less educated, not in paid employment (except those seeking help more easily) and to have a somatic disorder. Both negative and positive responses were associated with mood, anxiety and substance use disorders and comorbidity, as well as with neuroticism, external mastery, low self-esteem and low social support.
Conclusion: Only a small minority of participants reported distress from the interviews. This is an important finding for ethics committees charged with approving general population surveys that use the CIDI. It can also be valuable for planning such studies, enabling researchers to inform participants more fully about the effects of the interview before asking them for informed consent.