INTERRATER RELIABILITY OF THE STRUCTURED CLINICAL INTERVIEW FOR THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYNDROME SCALE FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA

The Swedish version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for sc hizophrenia (PANSS) has been tested and construct validity, internal r eliability and interrater reliability have been demonstrated to be qui te satisfactory. However, the interrater reliability of the negative s ymptoms was unsatisfactory low. In this study, the Swedish version of the Structured Clinical Interview for the PANSS has been tested. The i nterrater reliability is increased as compared with the inter-rater re liability achieved by means of the PANSS. As concerns the positive sca le, the intraclass coefficients increased to 0.98-0.99 with the SCID-P ANSS. For the negative scale, the intraclass coefficients increased to 0.83-0.90 with the SCID-PANSS, and for the general scale the increase was to 0.95-0.98 with the SCID-PANSS. It was also demonstrated that t he interrater reliability is higher for the positive and the negative factors derived from the PANSS than for the positive and the negative scales.