The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Dimension of schizophrenia--reliability and construct validity.
This study has focussed on a 10-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) subscale for the quantification of schizophrenic states. Seven psychiatrists interviewed jointly patients who all fulfilled the DSM-III criteria of schizophrenia, and in a subsequent pencil-and-paper procedure a judgment analysis was performed. The reliability analysis showed that less experienced BPRS raters made less consistent judgments implying the cautionary statement that the proper use of a scale for schizophrenia requires specialized training with the scale. The validity analysis showed that the BPRS items had an additive relationship implying that the sum of these items is a sufficient statistic for the measurement of severity of schizophrenic states. Finally, the results seem to indicate, that the underlying dimension defined by the 10-items BPRS subscale includes hierarchically the negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
Andersen
J
J
Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Larsen
J K
JK
Schultz
V
V
Nielsen
B M
BM
Kørner
A
A
Behnke
K
K
Munk-Andersen
E
E
Butler
B
B
Allerup
P
P
Bech
P
P
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011570:Psychiatry; D011594:Psychometrics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*