BARNES AKATHISIA SCALE - USEFULNESS OF STANDARDIZED VIDEOTAPE METHOD IN EVALUATION OF THE RELIABILITY AND IN-TRAINING RATERS

The Barnes Akathisia Scale was translated into Japanese and the reliab ility of its Japanese version was tested using the standardized videot ape method. Generalized kappa values of the inter-rater reliability am ong eight trained raters ranged from 0.740 to 0.754 in individual subj ective and objective items, whereas that in the item of global clinica l assessment was 0.686. The Cohen's kappa values were significantly hi gher in the trained raters than those in the untrained ones in the ite ms: objective, distress related to the restlessness in the subjective, and global clinical assessment. Evaluation in the test-retest reliabi lity performed by two trained raters showed excellent results, with th e Cohen's kappa values higher than 0.88 in all items. The present resu lts demonstrate that the Japanese version of the Barnes Akathisia Scal e has a high reliability in evaluating the symptoms of neuroleptic-ind uced akathisia, despite the existence of a few causes which produce ra ters' disagreements. The results also suggest that training raters pri or to clinical evaluation is indispensable to keep the high reliabilit y of this scale, and that the standardized videotape methods are quite useful for this training procedure.