Signal detection in clinical trials relies on ratings reliability. We conducted a reliability analysis of site-independent rater scores derived from audio-digital recordings of site-based rater interviews of the structured Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) in a schizophrenia study. "Dual" ratings assessments were conducted as part of a quality assurance program in a 12-week, double-blind, p...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to probe for regional cerebral effects of S-ketamine on in vivo GABA-A-receptor binding in healthy human subjects. METHODS We investigated I-123-iomazenil SPECT before, during and after administration of S-ketamine in a blinded placebo-controlled study design (n = 12 in both groups). Analyses of SPECT were performed with voxel-based statistical parametric mapping (SPM), and...

BACKGROUND The relationship between the duration of untreated psychosis and long-term clinical outcomes remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE Prospectively assess the relationship of the duration of untreated psychosis on clinical outcomes in a sample of individuals with first-onset schizophrenia treated at the Pudong Mental Health Center from January 2007 to December 2008. METHODS Information about...

There are clearly documented evidence concerning violence by the mentally ill. The violence may be committed on the basis of delusional beliefs or exacerbation of symptomatology. Family members have been the object of violence in more than 50% of the cases.It is not surprising, therefore, that patients are brought restrained to the psychiatric treatment units. This study was thus conducted to f...

BACKGROUND There is concern over the methods used to evaluate antipsychotic drugs. AIMS To assess the clinical relevance of findings in the literature. METHOD A systematic review identified studies of antipsychotics that used the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). A published method of translating these into Clinical Global Impression - C...

INTRODUCTION There has been a relative lack of research on deaf people with schizophrenia, and no data exist regarding symptom structure in this population. Thus, we determined the factor structure of the 24-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) in deaf (n = 34) and hearing (n = 31) people with schizophrenia and compared it to a standard four-factor solution. METHOD An obliquely rotated ...

Sir, We read with interest the study by Payee et al. (1999). Authors remark that no study on the treatment of catatonia with lorazepam has been carried out in India. In this context, we would like to mention that a similar but more exhaustive study has been conducted by us on a larger patient population at Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. We share a few findings from our study, which is...

Only few studies have compared the psychopathological features in first episode psychosis (FEP) and chronic schizophrenia (CS) patients. The aim of our study was to compare sociodemographic and clinical aspects of FEP and CS inpatients using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) in order to better characterize FEP. We did not find signifi...

BACKGROUND Despite the widespread use of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the clinical meaning of its total score and cut-off values used to define treatment response are unclear. AIMS To link the BPRS to Clinical Global Impression (CGI) ratings. METHOD Equipercentile linking of BPRS and CGI ratings from seven drug trials in acutely ill patients with schizophrenia (n=1979). RESU...

BACKGROUND Symptom rating scales are now well established in schizophrenia research but their scores are not the same as outcome. AIMS To appraise the usefulness of symptom rating scales in evaluating the outcome of people with schizophrenia. METHOD Literature on the use of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Clinical Global Imp...