Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology
Original Article

Validation of Chinese Version of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale-6 in Clinical Setting: A Preliminary Study

1.

Department of Sleep Medicine, The Fourth People's Hospital of Lianyungang, Lianyungang, China

2.

Department of Psychiatry, The Fourth People's Hospital of Lianyungang, Lianyungang, China

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2021; 31: 386-391
DOI: 10.5152/pcp.2021.21060
Read: 2277 Downloads: 621 Published: 14 October 2021

Background: The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale-6 (PANSS-6) is a brief measure to assess the core symptoms of schizophrenia. Psychometric characteristics of PANSS-6 in clinical settings are to be determined. We conducted this study among Chinese inpatients of schizophrenia in clinical settings, to determine psychometric characteristics of PANSS-6, and its’ accuracy for identifying antipsychotic efficacy.

Methods: Two hundred sixteen inpatients of schizophrenia were interviewed at baseline, week 4 and week 8 by experienced psychiatrists to collect information for rating PANSS-30 and PANSS-6. Internal consistency was estimated by the Cronbach's α; criterion validity was determined by Spearman’s correlations between sum scores of PANSS-6 and PANSS-30; factorial validity was determined by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV); and negative predictive value (NPV) of PANSS-6 for identifying responders and remitters were calculated.

Results: The Cronbach’s α coefficients of PANSS-6 were 0.72 (95% CI: 0.66-0.78) at baseline. Sum scores of PANSS-6 were significantly correlated with that of PANSS-30. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed this 2-factor model fit well: χ2/df = 1.331, P = .223; CFI = 0.994; TLI = 0.988, RMSEA = 0.037 (90% CI: 0.000-0.090); SRMR = 0.033. Standard factor loadings of each item ranged from 0.60 to 0.89. At week 8, 92 (48.42%) and 63 (33.16%) inpatients were classified as responders and remitters. The sensitivity of PANSS-6 for identifying responders and remitters was 0.77 and 1.0, specificities were 0.84 and 0.86.

Conclusion: Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale-6 is a sound scale for measuring psychotic severity and monitoring treatment outcomes of schizophrenia in clinical settings.

Cite this article as: Li L, Ma H, Wang X, Meng E. Validation of Chinese version of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale-6 in clinical setting: A preliminary study. Psychiatr Clin Psychopharmacol. 2021;31(4):386-391.

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