Reliability of clinical assessment of blunted affect.
The affect of 20 chronic schizophrenic in-patients was assessed by two psychiatrists using two rating scales. The interview recordings were reviewed three times--firstly with the auditory information only (the "audio review"), secondly with the visual information only (the "visual review") and thirdly with both (the "audio-visual review"). The "blunted affect score" correlated strongly with the total score of the verbal items of scales, but did not when a single mode of information was given. Since the absolute values of the "blunted affect score" were lower in the "visual review" than in the live interview and in the "audio-visual review", it was speculated that speech tended to bias the assessment of affect.
D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior