Inter-rater reliability of the Brazilian version of the Paykel scale of stressful life events

The inter-rater reliability of the Brazilian version of the Recent Life Events Interview, developed by Paykel in order to evaluate stressful life events, was studied in 21 psychiatric inpatients and 20 psychiatric outpatients. Data concerning the agreement between the two raters showed a satisfactory reliability for specific occurrence of events, month of occurrence, independence of events and negative objective impact. This preliminary study suggests that the Brazilian version of the Recent Life Events Interview is a reliable instrument for the assessment of life events in Brazilian samples.