On the use of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale in randomized clinical trials.
In the last 25 years, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) has been largely used to assess schizophrenia symptom intensity, but little information is available on how this scale was generally applied when evaluating the efficacy of schizophrenia therapies in randomized clinical trials. In the attempt to address this topic, a systematic PubMed Search was carried out using the keywords "PANSS" and "Randomized Clinical Trials". The analysis of retrieved articles highlighted that PANSS has constituted a suitable psychometric instrument to investigate the efficacy of pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. However, the information potentially provided by this scale was only partially reported in research articles, when characterizing the symptomatic features of patients at baseline. Furthermore, a consensus is needed to identify methodological strategies that may properly adapt PANSS-subscale structure with the symptomatic profiles of individuals enrolled in randomized controlled trials. The possibility that PANSS interview procedures and enrollment eligibility criteria may influence the symptomatic composition of patients involved in these studies is also discussed.
Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Bld. 1, Is Mirrionis Str., I-09123 Cagliari, Italy.
Eraldo
E
Nicotra
National Research Council, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, UOS of Cagliari, Bld. 5, Loc. Piscinamanna, POLARIS, I-09010 Pula, Cagliari, Italy.
Gianluca
G
Casu
National Research Council, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, UOS of Cagliari, Bld. 5, Loc. Piscinamanna, POLARIS, I-09010 Pula, Cagliari, Italy.
Sara
S
Piras
National Research Council, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, UOS of Cagliari, Bld. 5, Loc. Piscinamanna, POLARIS, I-09010 Pula, Cagliari, Italy. Electronic address: giorgio.marchese@cnr.it.
Giorgio
G
Marchese
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D039781:PubMed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents
Baseline; PANSS; Randomized Clinical Trials; Schizophrenia