How Germ of Idea Became Leading Rating Scale
Abstract
How Germ of Idea Became Leading Rating ScaleTammie Lee Demler The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale is increasingly being used by clinicians, not just researchers. Here's the story behind this famous scale's development. Once used in clinical research only, psychiatric rating scales are increasingly becoming part of the clinician's armamentarium to assess a patient's progress objectively. In the current health care climate, insurers want proof that an intervention is working, and “as an EKG serves a cardiologist, so does a clinical rating scale serve a psychiatrist,” said Lewis Opler, M.D., Ph.D., one of the two living developers of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Lewis Opler M.D., Ph.D.: “Some clinicians think the PANSS was developed only for researchers. Once trained, clinicians are surprised at how easy it is to administer and score.” Opler, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, began developing the PANSS in 1980 while an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Opler, just having completed his residency at Einstein, was studying the effects of L-dopa on tardive dyskinesia and unexpectedly saw the affect and social functioning of several patients improve when placed on L-dopa. “At first