PANSS
Also written as: PANSS — Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale
A 30-item clinical assessment tool used to measure symptom severity in schizophrenia research.
Full Definition
The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) is a standardized clinical interview and rating instrument used to assess the symptoms of schizophrenia. The scale consists of 30 items divided into three subscales: positive symptoms (7 items), negative symptoms (7 items), and general psychopathology (16 items). Each item is rated on a 7-point scale from 1 (absent) to 7 (extreme). PANSS is considered the gold standard for measuring schizophrenia symptom severity in clinical trials and research studies. It requires trained raters and typically takes 30-40 minutes to administer.
Usage
Usage note: Always capitalize all letters. Do not confuse with BPRS, which is a shorter assessment tool.
In Context
- "The study's primary efficacy endpoint was the change in PANSS total score from baseline to week 6." — clinical trial protocol
- "Inter-rater reliability for PANSS assessments exceeded 0.85 across all study sites." — methodology section