Symptom-Specific Rating Scales in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinical Practice

Introduction In the previous two articles in this series on rating scales, we summarized common characteristics, factors to consider when choosing among measures, and descriptions of various general scales used for screening and assessing severity of domains such as anxiety, mood, and problems at home and in school as well as overall functioning. Here, we conclude with a description of symptom-specific scales for youths suffering from disorders commonly encountered among practitioners who prescribe psychotropic medications to children and adolescents for psychiatric conditions. These measures have been used in clinical trials for preand posttreatment assessment of disorder severity prior to and throughout the course of treatment. Clinicians may add selected scales to supplement unstructured interviews and assessments to help inform their treatment plan. Like the general measures, we have selected these scales among the many that are available based on their numerous citations in the literature, rigorous empirical evidence for their validity, reliability, and clinical experience.