Entry Psychiatric Screen (EPS): A Psychiatric Screening Procedure for Applicants for Military Service

摘要

Premature attrition is a significant problem in the military, with an impact on available forces, and on expenses for accession and training. A significant proportion of premature attrition is due to undetected psychiatric conditions, present at entry into the armed forces. However, in-depth psychiatric interviews of all potential recruits presents an impractical solution. It would be desirable to have a psychiatric screen to use before or after induction. Such a screen would highlight the need to present certain individuals for further psychiatric evaluation. This presentation reports data regarding the convergent and concurrent criterion-related validity of a prototype of one such screen, the Entry Psychiatric Screen (EPS) V.1, which screens for anxiety, depression, mania, psychosis, and antisocial tendencies. Data gathered from over 400 induction-age college students indicates that the scales of the EPS demonstrate adequate convergent validity. In addition, the scales of the EPS were either as good as or superior to several commercially available instruments, in terms of dividing participants into subgroups who either had or did not have a history of psychiatric diagnosis.