About the MINI
MINI Adult and MINI Kid Family Products
What is the MINI?
The MINI is brief clinician rated structured diagnostic interview, also known as a clinical decision support tool or Clinical Outcome Assessment (COA) to assess, document, and confirm the presence of the major DSM-5 psychiatric disorders and suicidality.
The MINI has been validated under conditions in which it was clinician rated in paper format as a primary source document. The validation results and citations to the MINI listed on this site cannot be generalized to any other conditions or format. CLICK HERE to learn about the MINI validation in paper format. CLICK HERE to make sure any versions of the MINI you might be using as a clinical decision support tool in other formats, such as digital software, are FDA compliant.
How is the MINI organized? The MINI is made up of modules corresponding to the most common disorders in mental health. It also provides a summary sheet to record whether DSM-5 or ICD-10 criteria for specific diagnoses are met.
To keep the interview short, the MINI uses branching tree logic. Except for the suicidality module, each of the 17 modules starts with two to four symptom screening questions. Additional questions are asked only if responses to the screen questions are positive. Response options are in binary “yes” / “no” format. However, the clinician is encouraged to ask for examples when needed and to encourage the patient to ask for clarification if necessary. For some questions, notably in the Psychotic Disorders module, clinician observation and judgement are required in addition to patient responses to questions.
The MINI is designed to be administered by a clinician or trained mental health professional who is familiar with DSM-5 classification and diagnostic criteria.
Interview subjects may be psychiatric patients or general medical patients or individuals who do not self-identify as patients, e.g., participants in a national or community health survey.
WHAT IS THE MINI KID?
The MINI Kid is a clinician-rated structured clinical interview, also known as a clinical decision support tool, designed to assess, document, and confirm the presence of major DSM-5 psychiatric disorders and suicidality in children and adolescents aged 6-17 years. The interview is administered by a trained clinician to the child/adolescent together with the parent(s) although it can be administered to adolescents without a parent present. The MINI Kid is frequently identified as a clinical decision support tool and as a Clinician-reported Outcome measure (Clin-RO), a subcategory of Clinical Outcome Assessment measures (COA).
The MINI Kid has been validated under conditions in which it was clinician-rated in paper format as a primary source document. The validation results and citations to the MINI Kid listed on this site cannot be generalized to any other conditions or format. CLICK HERE to learn about the MINI Kid validation in paper format. CLICK HERE to make sure any version of the MINI Kid you might be using as a clinical decision support tool in other formats, such as digital software, are FDA compliant.
How is the MINI Kid organized? The MINI Kid is made up of modules corresponding to the most common disorders in mental health among children and adolescents. To keep the interview short, the MINI Kid uses branching tree logic.
Except for the suicidality module, each of the 23 modules starts with two to four symptom screening questions. Additional questions are asked only if responses to the screen questions are positive. Response options are in binary “yes” / “no” format. However, the clinician is encouraged to ask for examples when needed and to encourage the child or adolescent or parent to ask for clarification if necessary. For some questions, notably in the Psychotic Disorders module, clinician observation and judgment are required in addition to patient responses to questions.
Interview subjects may be child or adolescent psychiatric patients or general pediatric patients or youth who do not self-identify as patients, e.g., participants in a national or community health survey. As with the MINI for adults, diagnostic criteria are summarized and documented within each disorder section and on a Summary sheet. Discrepancies between parent and child reports are resolved at the item (individual question level) by asking for further input from the child and the parent and using clinical judgment to break ties.
A parent-rated version of the MINI Kid (MINI Kid-P), designed only for parents, is also available.
