A self-administered instrument to measure psychiatric discomfort of persons with serious mental illness.
The author describes the development and evaluation of the Psychiatric Discomfort Scale, a self-report instrument that provides a quantitative measurement of patients' discomfort with psychiatric symptoms that change over time. Initially, a 60-item instrument was evaluated with 55 psychiatric inpatients in a Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center and a comparison group of 71 medical outpatients in the VA system. It was revised and tested again with 292 outpatients in treatment for psychosis. The resulting 23-item instrument was found to be internally consistent and responsive to changes in a patient's condition over time.
Betemps
E J
EJ
College of Nursing of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0038, USA. liz.betemps@uc.edu
D017109:Akathisia, Drug-Induced / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D010343:Patient Admission; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012803:Sick Role