Allen N H, Gordon S, Hope T, Burns A
Central Manchester Healthcare NHS Trust, UK.
Int Psychogeriatr. 1997;9 Suppl 1:131-6; discussion 143-50.
There is increasing awareness of the importance of psychopathological and behavioral changes in dementia and a need for a technique to measure these noncognitive features. Such a schedule should keep screening questions to a minimum, include a severity measure, exclude symptoms resulting from physical illness, be as brief as possible, and not mix domains of psychopathology. To test the reliability, sensitivity, and validity of a newly developed test, 30 carers were interviewed four times during 6 weeks. An obligatory stem question in each category was followed by supplementary questions. The interviewer recorded the presence of each symptom, its severity, when each symptom started, its duration, and whether it was still present. To detect the presence of delusions, the informant was asked about the patient's insight. Satisfactory differences in mean kappa values were demonstrated in test-retest and interrater reliability and validity compared with other techniques. This test may be useful to measure the outcome of drug trials, for correlating psychopathological and behavioral changes with autopsy findings and in epidemiological surveys.
人们越来越意识到痴呆症中心理病理学和行为变化的重要性，以及需要一种技术来测量这些非认知特征。这样的量表应将筛查问题保持在最低限度，包括严重程度测量，排除身体疾病导致的症状，尽可能简短，且不混淆心理病理学领域。为了测试一种新开发测试的可靠性、敏感性和有效性，在6周内对30名护理人员进行了4次访谈。每个类别中都有一个必填的主干问题，后面跟着补充问题。访谈者记录每个症状的存在情况、严重程度、每个症状开始的时间、持续时间以及是否仍然存在。为了检测妄想的存在，询问了提供信息者关于患者的洞察力。与其他技术相比，在重测和评分者间的可靠性和有效性方面，平均kappa值显示出令人满意的差异。该测试可能有助于测量药物试验的结果，将心理病理学和行为变化与尸检结果相关联，以及用于流行病学调查。
