|
 |
Home 
|
 |
 |
Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS)
|
Back to Psychiatric Assessment Tools
Overall JE, Gorham DR. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Psychol Rep. 1962;10:799-812.
Appropriate for: Patients with major psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia
Administered by: Psychiatrists, psychologists or other trained rater
Time to complete: 15-30 minutes
Summary of Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale:
The BPRS is an 18-item scale measuring positive symptoms, general psychopathology and affective symptoms. Some items (eg mannersisms and posturing) can be rated simply on observation of the patient; other items (eg anxiety) involve an element of self-reporting by the patient.
When rating BPRS, it is important to allow unstructured sections in the clinical interview such that conceptual disorganisation in the patient's thought and speech and unusual thought content can be observed.
Each item is rated on a seven-point scale (1=not present to 7=extremely severe)
Benefits of the BPRS:
- Well established - among the most researched instruments used in psychiatry
- Well known - clinicians tend to be familiar with symptom scores and changes
- Sensitive to change - may be used to rate treatment response
- Broad evaluation - allows rating of severity of a number of different symptoms
- Used in many classic studies of new antipsychotics
- Psychometric properties and underlying factor structure is well-established
- Grouping on item scores allow scoring on distinct factors (tension; emotional withdrawal; mannerisms and posturing; motor retardation; uncooperativeness)
Challenges of the BPRS:
- Limited in scope - focus on positive and general psychopathology. Does not focus on negative symptoms. Needs to be utilised in combination with a negative symptom assessment tool, if negative symptomatology is to be captured
- Ambiguous interpretation - there are several ways symptoms are reported (eg. on a scale of 0 to 6 or a scale of 1 to 7); the dual reporting scale must be taken into consideration when interpreting scores
- Use of 1-7 scale - the non-linearity into the scale can complicate interpretation changes over time, particular with regards to response rates
|
|
Search
Quick Links
Page Tools
|
|
| |
|
 |
