CGI-S
Also written as: CGI-S — Clinical Global Impression-Severity
A single-item clinician rating scale that assesses overall illness severity on a 7-point scale.
Full Definition
The Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) is a widely used clinician-rated assessment tool that provides a global evaluation of a patient's current illness severity. The scale ranges from 1 (normal, not at all ill) to 7 (among the most extremely ill patients). CGI-S requires the clinician to consider their total clinical experience with the particular patient population and rate how mentally ill the patient appears at the time of assessment. Despite its simplicity, CGI-S demonstrates good reliability and validity across psychiatric conditions and is frequently used in clinical trials as a secondary outcome measure or for stratification purposes. It is often paired with CGI-I (Clinical Global Impression-Improvement) to assess treatment response.
Usage
Usage note: Use hyphen between CGI and S. Distinguish clearly from CGI-I (improvement scale).
In Context
- "Patients with a CGI-S score of 4 or higher at baseline were eligible for study participation." — inclusion criteria
- "CGI-S scores improved significantly in the active treatment group compared to placebo." — efficacy results