The use of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) by Overall and Gorham for the diagnosis of acute paranoid psychoses: evaluation of a German translation of the BPRS

Mombour W.; Kockott G.; Fliege K.

Max Planck Inst. Psychiat., Munchen, Germany

A German translation of Overall and Gorham's Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (PBRS) has been used to select patients with acute paranoid psychoses for a drug trial and to evaluate the results of the treatment. The BPRS proved very useful in screening, and as a reliable method to judge the overall therapeutic outcome. The total score showed a high degree of interrater reliability; it also reflected a marked decrease of psychopathological symptoms at the end of the trial. Interrater correlation coefficients were lower than 0.7 in 9/16 items. This may be due to the somewhat imprecise and ambiguous formulation of several items. The average BPRS profile of patients with 'paranoid hallucinatory schizophrenia' were similar to those published by French authors for the corresponding diagnosis.

Keywords: drug screening; paranoia; paranoid hallucinatory syndrome; paranoid psychosis; drug therapy; psychopharmacology; major clinical study; therapy; oral drug administration

PHARMAKOPSYCHIATR. NEUROPSYCHOPHARMAKOLOGIE 8/5 (279-288) 1975