Validation of a Clinical Global Impression Scale for Aggression (CGI-A) in a sample of 558 psychiatric patients.
OBJECTIVE
Clinical management of aggression depends on the availability of easily administrable measurements allowing reliable evaluation. The present study's aim is to validate a Clinical Global Impression-Severity of Aggression scale (CGI-A).


METHODS
558 inpatients with psychiatric disorders and an agitated-aggressive syndrome at baseline were continuously assessed over 5 days using CGI-A and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale-Excited Component (PANSS-EC). Equipercentile linking, correlation analyses and linear regression were applied.


RESULTS
Relationship between CGI-A and PANSS-EC total score was found to be linear. On a 5-level CGI-A scale, values of 1 to 5 points were found to correspond to PANSS-EC scores of 12.2, 16.7, 21.3, 25.8, and 30.4, respectively (average increase: 4.6). All findings remained stable when only data from patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were analyzed.


CONCLUSIONS
The CGI-A is proposed as a quickly administrable scale for the assessment of patients' aggressiveness.
Huber
Christian G
CG
Psychosis Early Detection and Intervention Centre, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany.
Lambert
Martin
M
Naber
Dieter
D
Schacht
Alexander
A
Hundemer
Hans-Peter
HP
Wagner
Thomas T
TT
Schimmelmann
Benno G
BG
D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011595:Psychomotor Agitation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents