Reliability of the Life Chart Schedule for assessment of the long-term course of schizophrenia

We report on the inter-rater reliability of the Life Chart Schedule (LCS). The LCS is designed to assess the longterm course of schizophrenia in four key domains (symptoms, treatment, residence, and work) over two time period s (past two years, entire period of illness). The subjects were 27 consecut ive admissions to a schizophrenia research unit. The LCS was filled out by pairs of raters, blinded to each others' ratings, using the same data (inte rview with subject and chart). Reliability was examined for 45 LCS ratings selected from all four domains and both time periods. Selected ratings pert ained to the duration of specified experiences, the quality of these experi ences, and the long-term time trend. The kappa statistic and the intra-clas s correlation coefficient (ICC) were used to determine inter-rater reliabil ity for continuous and categorical ratings, respectively. LCS ratings prove d reliable in all four key domains and both time periods. The reliability w as fair to excellent. for ratings of duration of experience (ICC ranged fro m 0.53 to 0.99), quality of experience (kappa ranged from 0.46 to 0.92) and long-term time trends (kappa ranged from 0.66 to 0.94). The LCS can be use d to obtain reliable ratings of the long-term course of schizophrenia in mu ltiple domains. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.