Measuring Pathology using the PANSS across Diagnoses: Inconsistency of the Positive Symptom Domain across Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective, and Bipolar Disorder

Although the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was developed for use in schizophrenia (SZ), antipsychotic drug trials use the PANSS to measure symptom change also for bipolar (BP) and schizoaffective (SA) disorder, extending beyond its original indications. If the dimensions measured by the PANSS are different across diagnoses, then the same score change for the same drug condition may have different meanings depending on which group is being studied. Here, we evaluated whether the factor structure in the PANSS was consistent across schizophrenia (n = 3647), bipolar disorder (n = 858), and schizoaffective disorder (n = 592).
Source: Psychiatry Research - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research