A new tool to assess duration of untreated illness: Psychopathological Onset and Latency to Treatment Questionnaire (POLT-Q)

INTRODUCTION: Duration of untreated illness (DUI) has been increasingly investigated as a predictor of clinical outcome and course in different psychiatric disorders. To date, however, there are no tools for measuring this variable. Our group developed the Psychopathological Onset and Latency to Treatment Questionnaire (POLT-Q), focused on the onset of psychiatric disorders. Aim of this study was to assess the reproducibility and manageability of POLT-Q. METHODS: Fifty consecutive in- and out-patients aged 16-65 with different DSM-5 psychiatric disorders were recruited. Two raters were present during the interview: one of them administered the POLT-Q to the patient and both independently completed the questionnaire. Collected values were compared using Cohen's Kappa test and McNemar test. RESULTS: 62.5% of the replies showed a 100% consistency between the two raters. In the 6.25% the agreement was 0.8, a high degree of agreement. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The POLT-Q assesses variables related to the psychopathological onset and first pharmacological treatment and, according to present findings, it represents a convenient, reliable and standardised measure for DUI. Further studies on larges sample are needed to confirm our preliminary results.