A Mucci1, S Galderisi2, E Merlotti1, A Rossi3, P Rocca4, P Bucci1, G Piegari1, M Chieffi1, A Vignapiano1, M Maj1. 1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy. 2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy. Electronic address: silvana.galderisi@gmail.com. 3. Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, Section of Psychiatry, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy. 4. Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) was developed to address the main limitations of the existing scales for the assessment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The initial validation of the scale by the group involved in its development demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity, and a factor structure confirming the two domains of negative symptoms (reduced emotional/verbal expression and anhedonia/asociality/avolition). However, only relatively small samples of patients with schizophrenia were investigated. Further independent validation in large clinical samples might be instrumental to the broad diffusion of the scale in clinical research. METHODS: The present study aimed to examine the BNSS inter-rater reliability, convergent/discriminant validity and factor structure in a large Italian sample of outpatients with schizophrenia. RESULTS: Our results confirmed the excellent inter-rater reliability of the BNSS (the intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.81 to 0.98 for individual items and was 0.98 for the total score). The convergent validity measures had r values from 0.62 to 0.77, while the divergent validity measures had r values from 0.20 to 0.28 in the main sample (n=912) and in a subsample without clinically significant levels of depression and extrapyramidal symptoms (n=496). The BNSS factor structure was supported in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The study confirms that the BNSS is a promising measure for quantifying negative symptoms of schizophrenia in large multicenter clinical studies.
BACKGROUND: The Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) was developed to address the main limitations of the existing scales for the assessment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The initial validation of the scale by the group involved in its development demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity, and a factor structure confirming the two domains of negative symptoms (reduced emotional/verbal expression and anhedonia/asociality/avolition). However, only relatively small samples of patients with schizophrenia were investigated. Further independent validation in large clinical samples might be instrumental to the broad diffusion of the scale in clinical research. METHODS: The present study aimed to examine the BNSS inter-rater reliability, convergent/discriminant validity and factor structure in a large Italian sample of outpatients with schizophrenia. RESULTS: Our results confirmed the excellent inter-rater reliability of the BNSS (the intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.81 to 0.98 for individual items and was 0.98 for the total score). The convergent validity measures had r values from 0.62 to 0.77, while the divergent validity measures had r values from 0.20 to 0.28 in the main sample (n=912) and in a subsample without clinically significant levels of depression and extrapyramidal symptoms (n=496). The BNSS factor structure was supported in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The study confirms that the BNSS is a promising measure for quantifying negative symptoms of schizophrenia in large multicenter clinical studies.
Authors: Gregory P Strauss; Ian M Raugh; Luyu Zhang; Lauren Luther; Hannah C Chapman; Daniel N Allen; Brian Kirkpatrick; Alex S Cohen Journal: Schizophrenia (Heidelb) Date: 2022-04-15
Authors: Gregory Paul Strauss; Farnaz Zamani Esfahlani; Brian Kirkpatrick; Daniel N Allen; James M Gold; Katherine Frost Visser; Hiroki Sayama Journal: Schizophr Bull Date: 2019-10-24 Impact factor: 9.306