Patient-rated versus clinician-rated side effects of drug treatment in schizophrenia - Clinical validation of a self-rating version of the UKU Side Effect Rating Scale (UKU-SERS-Pat)

A self-rating version of the UKU Side Effect Rating Scale has been develope d. The present study examines the agreement between patients' self-assessme nt of side effects and the attending clinicians' ratings. The patient sampl e consisted of 63 patients with schizophrenia under maintenance treatment w ith risperidone, clozapine or classical antipsychotics. Approximately two t hirds of the patients used concomitant medication with e.g. benzodiazepines , SSRIs, anticholinergics. Most inter-correlations between scores for singl e, corresponding items, subscores of Psychic, Neurological, Autonomic and O ther side effects, as well as the Total Score from the patient version of t he UKU Side Effect Self Rating Scale (UKU-SERS-Pat) and the clinician versi on (UKU-SERS-Clin) were found to be statistically significant. Patients rep orted side effects more frequently and/or rated symptoms more severe than t he clinicians. The results support the validity of the SERS-Pat and suggest that patient rated side effects may provide important clinical information not detected by clinician rated interviews. Such information can be utilis ed both in clinical investigations, in development of treatment programs an d for individual patients in clinical practice.