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To the Editor: Dr Weissman and colleagues¹ reported that remission of maternal depression after 3 months of pharmacological treatment was associated with an overall 11% decrease in the rate of diagnoses in their children, whereas nonremission was associated with an 8% increase in the rateof diagnoses after this period. Mothers and children were interviewed through the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children–Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) to establish categorical diagnosis, and mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist.

It was ambiguous how diagnoses were established through the K-SADS-PL because there are several strategies to assign a diagnosis when interviewing 2 informants. A diagnosis may be considered positive if symptoms are endorsed by both informants ("and" rule), or if symptoms are endorsed by either of them ("or" rule). In addition, interviewers can collect information from both sources and establish a diagnosis based on a clinical decision (best estimate). . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Guilherme Polanczyk, MD, MSc; Luis Augusto Rohde, MD, DSc
lrohde@terra.com.br
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Porto Alegre, Brazil