title: Dimensional approaches to schizophrenia: A comparison of the Bern Psychopathology scale and the five-factor model of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.
abstract: The aim was to examine to what extent the dimensions of the BPS map the five factors derived from the PANSS in order to explore the level of agreement of these alternative dimensional approaches in patients with schizophrenia. 149 inpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were recruited. Psychopathological symptoms were assessed with the Bern Psychopathology Scale (BPS) and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Linear regression analyses were conducted to explore the association between the factors and the items of the BPS. The robustness of patterns was evaluated. An understandable overlap of both approaches was found for positive and negative symptoms and excitement. The PANSS positive factor was associated with symptoms of the affect domain in terms of both inhibition and disinhibition, the PANSS negative factor with symptoms of all three domains of the BPS as an inhibition and the PANSS excitement factor with an inhibition of the affect domain and a disinhibition of the language and motor domains. The results show that here is only a partial overlap between the system-specific approach of the BPS and the five-factor PANSS model. A longitudinal assessment of psychopathological symptoms would therefore be of interest.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University, Germany. Electronic address: fabian.lang@bkh-guenzburg.de.
authors.forename: Fabian U
authors.initials: FU
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University, Germany; Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Germany.
authors.forename: Annabel S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Müller-Stierlin
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Psychiatry, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walther
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Psychiatry, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stegmayer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jäger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
keywords: BPS; Dimensional approaches; PANSS; Psychopathology; Schizophrenia