title: Validating specific psychopathology scales in older outpatients with schizophrenia.
abstract: To our knowledge, there have been no published studies validating commonly used psychopathology rating scales in older outpatients with schizophrenia. We studied specific psychopathology rating scales (three subscales of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and depression subscales; the Scale for Assessment of Positive Symptoms; the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms; the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms; and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) in 101 (age > 45 years) DSM-III-R-diagnosed schizophrenia outpatients. We found high interrater reliability (intra-class correlated coefficient > or = .77) on these scales. Using principal components analysis, we demonstrated satisfactory construct validity, suggesting three factors-positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and depressive symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Deigo 92161, USA.
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: McAdams
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fell
authors.forename: D V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Jeste
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology