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The BPRS is an 18-item observer-scale designed to assess patients with major psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia. The BPRS measures positive symptoms, general psychopathology and affective symptoms. Some items (e.g. mannerisms and posturing) can be rated simply on observation of the patient; other items (e.g. anxiety) involve an element of self-report by the patient. The BPRS is administered by a trained clinician via a semi-structured interview.
When rating BPRS, it is important to allow unstructured sections in the clinical interview so that disorganization in the patient’s thought and speech and unusual thought content can be observed.
Each BPRS item is rated on a seven-point scale (1=not present to 7=extremely severe).
Benefits of the BPRS:- Well established – among the most researched instruments used in psychiatry
- Well known – clinicians tend to be familiar with symptom scores and changes
- Sensitive to change – may be used to rate treatment response
- Broad evaluation – allows rating of severity of a number of different symptoms
- Used in many classic studies of new antipsychotics
- Psychometric properties and underlying factor structure is well-established
- Grouping on item scores allow scoring on distinct factors (tension; emotional withdrawal; mannerisms and posturing; motor retardation; uncooperativeness)
