[The significance of transdiagnostic rating scales and symptom dimensions in fine-mapping and comparing psychiatric disorders: Introduction of the Catatonia-Psychosis-Affective-Negative (CPAN) rating scale]

Abstract

Psychiatric diagnosis formulation has undergone continuous evolution over the past century and a half, always adapting to the scientific, social, and technological challenges of the given era. During recent decades, there has been a shift towards the dimensional, transdiagnostic approach in many areas, but this had little impact on everyday patient care. In our view, in order to benefit as much as other medical fields from the advances in artificial intelligence and big data analytics, there needs to be a shift towards the dimensional approach in psychiatry. In our study, we present an easy-to-use transdiagnostic tool for assessing the longitudinal course of psychotic disorders, the Catatonia-Psychosis-Affective-Negative/Neurodevelopmental (CPAN) scale. The CPAN is used to assess four basic symptom spectra in the field of psychotic disorders (bipolar affective disorder, schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia) on a scale of 0-4 (catatonia, psychotic symptoms, affective symptoms and negative/neurodevelopmental symptoms). In addition, it is possible to use binary symptom markers (specifiers) to refine the symptom picture. Currently, the scale is being tested in clinical care and a large-scale validation study is in preparation at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University.