Common factors in two methods for assessing psychiatric inpatients.

Repeated measures were collected on 99 patients by use of two assessment instruments, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, based on an interview, and the Psychotic Inpatient Profile, based on observations of ward behavior. For each S, scores from the two instruments were matched for day of rating and intercorrelated. Factor analysis revealed two factors, each with substantial contributions from both rating instruments. The first factor, interpreted as measuring thought disorder, accounted for 19% of the total varlance. The second factor, termed mood disorder, accounted for 12% of the variance. A third factor accounted for an additional 9% of variance, but had high loadings only on scales of the BPRS.