Novel rating scales for schizophrenia - Targeted Inventory on Problems in Schizophrenia (TIP-Sz) and Functional Assessment for Comprehensive Treatment of Schizophrenia (FACT-Sz).
OBJECTIVE
Many rating scales have been in use to evaluate various symptomatic domains, and eventually there are too many scales to be selected and widely utilized in busy real-world settings. Relevant, quick, and user-friendly assessment scales are needed to facilitate measurement-based treatment of schizophrenia.


METHODS
The authors created unique convenient assessment scales: Targeted Inventory on Problems in Schizophrenia (TIP-Sz), and Functional Assessment for Comprehensive Treatment of Schizophrenia (FACT-Sz). The TIP-Sz consists of 10 items (behavioral dyscontrol/disorganization, hostility/agitation/violence, indifference/affective withdrawal/motor retardation, symptoms on mood/anxiety/obsession/compulsion, insight/reality testing, social competence/independence, adherence to treatment, therapeutic alliance/comfort of therapists on the situation, overall prognostic impression, and subjective well-being/satisfaction with therapy). They are all common and frequently problematic, and each item is rated from 0-10. The FACT-Sz evaluates psychosocial functioning of patients with a score of 0-100, and is judged entirely on an objective basis. Their correlations with the frequently utilized Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), and Clinical Global Impression-Severity subscale were determined.


RESULTS
Data on 36 patients, assessed separately by four experienced psychiatrists, were analyzed. Under an excellent interrater reliability among raters (Intraclass correlation coefficients: 0.822-0.966), correlations among the scales were very high (Spearman's rho: 0.825-0.909), and other indicators of the scale were generally good. Specifically, the TIP-Sz and FACT-Sz could be rated at 1/3-1/4 of time to complete the PANSS and GAF.


CONCLUSIONS
The TIP-Sz and FACT-Sz proved to be reliable and valid, which would be of value in daily clinical practice as a minimum standardized assessment set.
Suzuki
Takefumi
T
Keio University, School of Medicine, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Tokyo, Japan. takefumi@oak.dti.ne.jp
Uchida
Hiroyuki
H
Nomura
Kensuke
K
Takeuchi
Hiroyoshi
H
Nakajima
Shinichiro
S
Tanabe
Akira
A
Yagi
Gohei
G
Watanabe
Koichiro
K
Kashima
Haruo
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires