ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Psichiatrica 2005 December;46(4):315-24

Copyright © 2005 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Evaluation of positive and negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia: an interrelationship study among SANS/SAPS, PANSS and InSKa rating scales

Callegari C., Poloni N., Pace V., Baranzini F., Grecchi A., Bortolaso P., Vender S.

Aim. The aim of the sudy was to evaluate the degree of statistic correlation of some of the best known instruments used for the assessment of the positive and negative symptolatology of schizophrenic patients.
Methods. The evaluation rating scales PANSS, SAPS/SANS and InSka in the Italian version have been used. The scales have been submitted, through the joined interview method, to 28 DSM-IV schizophrenic patients living in some community units of our department, with at least 5 year illness. We have used the scores resulting from the submission of each rating scale to get to the definition of the syndrome diagnosis following the rules stated by each author. We have then compared these diagnosis (syndromic diagnosis interrelation), the simple scores of each subscale (subscale interrelation) and the subscales of PANSS and SAPS/SANS for the structure correlation evaluation.
Results. A substantial positive correlation among the tools used has been noticed. This correlation was higher for the negative syndrome diagnosis (Spearman's ro=0.503; P<0.01) and for the correlation between the subscales evaluating the negative symptoms (Pearson's r=0.668; P<0.01). The correlation between very different instruments such as the scale of evaluation of the apathy syndrome and the scale of evaluation of the PANSS general psychophatology has proved statistically significat (Pearson's r=0.689; P<0.01).
Conclusion. Even if based on a poor sample, the results seem to support the research hypothesis and to confirm the litterature data. On the basis of our experience we can confirm the validity of the support given by these instruments both in research and in clinical practice.