The Sandoz Clinical Assessment-Geriatric (SCAG) scale. A general-purpose psychogeriatric rating scale

Abstract

In response to a need for an easily used general-purpose rating scale designed specifically for the evaluation of pharmacotherapy in senile dementia and related conditions, the Sandoz Clinical Assessment-Geriatric (SCAG) scale was developed. This scale has been widely used in geriatric psychopharmacologic research and has been found to be sensitive, valid, and reliable for this purpose. In order to provide investigators with guidelines for the evaluation of the 18 items and global evaluation provided on the scale, with a view to improving interrater reliability, a manual was developed for this purpose. As the existence of this manual is not widely known, it is presented so that the SCAG scale may be used in a more uniform manner from investigator to investigator.