The UT Health Psychological Autopsy Interview Schedule (UTH- PAIS) – Description and Reliability of Diagnoses and Transdiagnostic Personality Measures

Few studies have used psychological autopsies to evaluate large and diverse populations on transdiagnostically relevant variables such as personality, temperament, and trauma exposure, rather they tend to focus on specific psychiatric disorders or manner of death. We therefore developed the UT Health Psychological Autopsy Interview Schedule (UTH-PAIS). The measure is described, and our results show that that the PAIS diagnoses and dimensions can be reliably assessed. Furthermore, we were able to show that our sample of donated brains overall matches the demographic characteristics of larger pool of individuals receiving a medical autopsy. In the Discussion we review the strengths and potential limitations of the study and outline in which context the PAIS will prove to be useful.