title: The measurement of psychotic acuity by nursing staff.
abstract: Accurate evaluation of patients' psychotic state is essential to decrease psychotic symptoms and protect the patient and others. The aim of this paper is to conduct a literature review in order to access the utility, reliability and validity of current rating scales that are purported to measure psychotic acuity of inpatient population. A search of a number of electronic databases was undertaken to retrieve potential articles that focus on the measurement of acute psychosis. We identified some conceptual and theoretical problems when using a scale that is monitoring the progress of discharge and assesses the outcome of treatments. The findings revealed a difficulty in finding a commonly agreed definition of acute psychosis and a problem of obtaining frequent measures, and the frequency of measurement and fluctuation in psychosis. The most dominant scales in assessing psychosis were reviewed: the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale. Several issues related to the scales' inter-rater reliability and construct validity remain unexplored. None of these scales addressed the conceptual and theoretical problems that we identified. A new scale that will measure acuity of symptoms in inpatient settings needs to be created.
authors.affiliation: Research Worker, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, De Crespigny Park, London, UK. Christina.Theodoridou@iop.kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Theodoridou
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bowers
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brennan
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Winship
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000592:standards*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results