Validity and reliability of the French-language version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)

Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the French-language Version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Method: The validity and reliability of the PANSS were studied in a population of 342 patients diagnosed as schizophrenic according to DSILI-III-R criteria. Results: The study of the internal consistency and principal-component analysis of the initial structure with three subscales (positive, negative and general psychopathology) led us to investigate other factorial structures. We isolated a 5-factor structure (negative, positive, hostility, disorganization and anxiety/depression) explaining 57.5% of the total variance. The internal consistency of the 5 factors isolated was good (0.87 for the negative factor, 0.82 for the positive factor, 0.78 for the hostility factor, 0.71 for the disorganization factor and 0.68 for the anxiety/depression factor, respectively). The validity study on the external criteria confirmed the relationship between the negative and anxiety/depression factors and the extrapyramidal symptoms. Conclusion: The stability of the PANSS factorial warrants discussion.