Adaptation of the scale for the assessment of positive symptoms and scale for the assessment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia in Bangladesh

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is no reliable and valid psychometric measure in Bangladesh to assist mental health and relevant professionals to assess the presence and severity of symptoms of schizophrenic patients as regularly used in developed countries. Hence two widely used measures, SAPS (34-items) and SANS (25-items) had been tested with a Bangladeshi sample to determine their psychometric properties. Factor analysis, reliability and validity had been tested for the measures on 170 patients (Mean age= 28.10 years; SD= 10.04). A two factors (positive and negative) model for the total nine global items using exploratory factor analysis were identified. Both measures showed high internal consistency and all items were significantly correlated with each other and total scores of the measures.