PANSS10/20 for Pediatric Trials: Reliability, Validity, & Sensitivity

Published in the open-access Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP Open), May 2024

Validated Short Versions of PANSS Show Promise for Pediatric Schizophrenia Trials

This study confirms that abbreviated 10- and 20-item versions of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) demonstrate excellent reliability, validity, and treatment sensitivity in pediatric schizophrenia trials.

Analysis of data from 201 adolescents showed these shorter scales maintain high correlation with the standard 30-item version while significantly reducing assessment time and patient burden. These findings offer researchers and clinicians practical alternatives that maintain measurement integrity while improving efficiency and reducing costs—particularly valuable for longitudinal monitoring in clinical trials and practice.