Currently, the main mode of assessing and diagnosing schizophrenia by healthcare professionals is looking into the scales that measure the severity of both positive and negative symptoms. These scales are also used to monitor the response to treatment in patients with schizophrenia. Researchers of this review note that the quality, determined by the validity and reliability of each of the scales, vary even though they are commonly used. Since the older scales have been established over 3 decades ago, the understanding of negative symptoms has come a long way, with the development of newer scales that assess the validity of negative symptoms. There are not many articles that look into the utility of these newer scales. Researchers of this review aimed to compare the utility of more established scales vs newer scales.

Reference: Kumari S, Malik M, Florival C, Manalai P, Sonje S. An Assessment of Five (PANSS, SAPS, SANS, NSA-16, CGI-SCH) commonly used Symptoms Rating Scales in Schizophrenia and Comparison to Newer Scales (CAINS, BNSS). J Addict Res Ther. 2017;8(3):324. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000324