Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Dec 15;210(2):626-33.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.07.001. Epub 2013 Jul 26.

The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (version 4.0) factorial structure and its sensitivity in the treatment of outpatients with unipolar depression

Adriano Zanello  1 , Laurent Berthoud, Joseph Ventura, Marco C G Merlo
Affiliations

The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (version 4.0) factorial structure and its sensitivity in the treatment of outpatients with unipolar depression

Adriano Zanello et al. Psychiatry Res. .

Abstract

The 24-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS, version 4.0) enables the rater to measure psychopathology severity. Still, little is known about the BPRS's reliability and validity outside of the psychosis spectrum. The aim of this study was to examine the factorial structure and sensitivity to change of the BPRS in patients with unipolar depression. Two hundred and forty outpatients with unipolar depression were administered the 24-item BPRS. Assessments were conducted at intake and at post-treatment in a Crisis Intervention Centre. An exploratory factor analysis of the 24-item BPRS produced a six-factor solution labelled "Mood disturbance", "Reality distortion", "Activation", "Apathy", "Disorganization", and "Somatization". The reduction of the total BPRS score and dimensional scores, except for "Activation", indicates that the 24-item BPRS is sensitive to change as shown in patients that appeared to have benefited from crisis treatment. The findings suggest that the 24-item BPRS could be a useful instrument to measure symptom severity and change in symptom status in outpatients presenting with unipolar depression.

Keywords: BPRS; Crisis Intervention Centre; Depression.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Adams CL, El-Mallakh R. Patient outcome after treatment in a community-based crisis stabilization unit. Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research. 2009;36:396–399. - PubMed
    1. Akiskal HS, Benazzi F. The DSM-IV and ICD-10 categories of recurrent [major] depressive and bipolar II disorders: evidence that they lie on a dimensional spectrum. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2006;92:45–54. - PubMed
    1. Anderson SW, Crist AJ, Payne N. Predicting inpatient length of stay with the expanded version of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (version 4.0) Psychiatric Services. 2004;55:77–79. - PubMed
    1. Bacchetta JP, Zanello A, Varnier M, Stebler E, Safran E, Ferrero F, Bertschy G, Merlo MCG. Développement des centres de crises à Genève: impact sur les hospitalisations. [Development of crisis interventions centres in Geneva: impact on hospitalisations.] Schweizer Archiv für Neurologie und Psychiatrie. 2009;160:116–121.
    1. Ballerini A, Boccalon R, Boncompagni G, Cassachia M, Margari F, Minervini L, Righi R, Russo F, Salteri A. An observational study in psychiatric acute patients admitted to general hospital psychiatric wards in Italy. Annals of General Psychiatry. 2007;6:2. - PMC - PubMed