Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2: 70–76 (2008) DOI: 10.1002/pmh The Self-report Standardized Assessment of Personality-abbreviated Scale: Preliminary results of a brief screening test for personality disorders Personality and Mental Health 2: 70–76 (2008) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/pmh.34 SARA GERMANS 1 , GUUS L. VAN HECK 2 , PAUL MORAN 3 AND PAUL P.G. HODIAMONT 1,2 , 1 GGZ Midden-Brabant, Tilburg, The Netherlands; 2 Department of Psychology and Health, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands; 3 Health Services Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry at the Maudsley, University of London, UK ABSTRACT Objective The internal consistency, test–retest reliability and validity of the Self-report Standardized Assessment of Personality-abbreviated Scale (SAPAS-SR) as a screening instrument for personality disorders were studied in a random sample of 195 Dutch psychiatric outpatients, using the Structured Clinical Interviews for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II) as a gold standard. Method All patients completed a self-report version of the SAPAS. One week later, they were interviewed with the SCID-II. Two weeks later, the SAPAS-SR was re-administered. Results According to the SCID-II, 97 patients (50%) were suffering from a personality disorder. The SAPAS- SR correctly classified 81% of all participants. Sensitivity (0.83) and specificity (0.80) were slightly lower compared with the original English version. This difference may be explained by the lower prevalence and severity of personality disorders in the study population. Conclusion The results provide evidence for the usefulness of the SAPAS as a self-administered instrument for screening personality disorders in clinical populations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction Because the presence of co-morbid personality dis- order can adversely affect the management of mental illnesses (Moran et al., 2003b; Newton- Howes, Tyrer, & Johnson, 2006), assessment of the personality status of patients should be an essential part of every psychiatric examination. Although not perfect (Zimmerman, 1994), a standardized clinical interview is generally considered to be the most reliable and valid method available for the assessment of personality disorders. However, performing such an interview is quite often very time consuming and can be exhausting for the patient. Self-report questionnaires can be useful research tools, particularly when employed as a part of a two-stage design for case identification (Lenzenweger, Loranger, Korfine, & Neff, 1997). However, self-report questionnaires generally have poor specificity and can also be tiring for patients as they require the ability to concentrate on written questions. A third approach is to conduct a brief