The comprehesive psychopathological rating scale--CPRS--in patients with schizophrenic syndromes. Inter-rater reliability and in relation to Mårtens' S-scale.

In the course of a multicenter controlled trial of the effects of neuroleptic drugs on patients with schizophrenic or paranoid syndromes a comparison was made between the Swedish symptom rating scale--Mårtens' S-scale especially designed for patients with schizophrenic syndromes--and a new rating scale--the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale--CPRS. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient between the two scales was found to be 0,48 and as the inter-rater reliability for both scales was found to be quite satisfactory the validity of the scales is discussed. The CPRS scale was found to be easy to handle even for untrained doctors and in a separate study of inter-rater reliability where 5 doctors saw 16 patients a quite satisfactory reliability rk = 0,70--0.97, was found for 33 out of 39 items. In some items, espically those concerning different aspects of affective disturbances a lower inter-rater reliability was found but these items have been revised in later versions of the scale.