The growing emphasis on registration of problem behavior in youth health care requires clear-cut diagnostic categories and reliable methods. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (dsm) is therefore broadly used in the field. To obtain more reliable classifications structured diagnostic interviews have been developed. Although these were originally designed for use in clinical and epidemiological research projects, they might prove useful for clinicians as well. In this article several of these instruments are compared in terms of their most important features. The authors try to point out the respective merits and limitations of the interviews in order to illustrate their potential utility for clinical purposes in a managed care world.