INTERRATER RELIABILITY OF THE JAPANESE VERSION OF THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYNDROME SCALE AND THE APPRAISAL OF ITS TRAINING EFFECT

The purpose of the present study is to test interrater reliability of the Japanese version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANS S) and to examine factors possibly affecting the reliability. The stud y group conducted the PANSS rating on 20 patients with DSM-IV schizoph renia. For the analysis of interrater reliability, intraclass correlat ion coefficient (ICC) was calculated. The ICC for individual items of the PANSS ranged from 0.26 to 0.92, and those for the positive, negati ve, and general psychopathology subscales were 0.85, 0.83 and 0.75, re spectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the subscales were 0. 84, 0.87 and 0.76, respectively. The interrater reliability and the in ternal consistency were satisfactory and similar to those obtained in the antecedent studies. No salient training effect was found in a sequ ential analysis of the concordance rate. It is concluded that the Japa nese version of the PANSS is a reliable and efficient tool for compreh ensive assessment of the schizophrenic syndrome.