title: The Brief Motor Scale (BMS) for the assessment of motor soft signs in schizophrenic psychoses and other psychiatric disorders.
abstract: Subtle motor impairment is an important aspect of neurological soft signs (NSS) which are frequently found in psychiatric patients-particularly schizophrenic patients. On the basis of data collected in previous studies using two different NSS scales, the most reliable and discriminative signs of motor impairment were identified to construct a brief 10-item rating scale. Subsequently, the new scale was applied to a sample of subacute patients with schizophrenic psychoses (N = 82) and healthy controls (N = 33). Factor analysis identified two factors which were labeled "motor coordination" and "motor sequencing". Both the total score and the subscores showed high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. There were highly significant group differences on the total score and the subscores as well as on each individual task. The scale has high sensitivity (84.1%) and specificity (87.9%) indicating that it may provide an effective instrument for the screening of subjects with neurodysfunction as well as for monitoring motor dysfunction in the clinical course of psychiatric disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technical University Munich, Germany. th.jahn@lrz.tu-muenchen.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jahn
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hubmann
authors.forename: Fritz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mohr
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Köhler
authors.forename: Regine
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schlenker
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Niethammer
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schröder
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000341:Affective Disorders, Psychotic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology