The validation of Turkish version of personal and social performance scale (PSP)

Objective: Functioning in severe mental disorders is very important and brief functioning rating instruments are needed. Even though patients with severe psychiatric disorders achieve symptomatic recovery, most of them cannot return to their initial level of social functioning. Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) is one of the instruments which can be used in severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia and takes a short time to complete. Methods: The study was performed in departments of psychiatry of two university hospitals. In- or out-patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorders were included in the study. The exclusion criteria were comorbidity of other psychiatric disorders including substance use disorders or of physical diseases. For concurrent validity, beside PSP, Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) of DSM-IV, Quality of Life and Satisfaction Questionnaire (QLS-Q), and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were used. For discriminant validity, the mean scores of PSP in patients with and without symptomatic remission were compared. Results: The study was carried out with a total of 135 patients, 105 (77.8%) patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 30 (22.2%) patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The mean age of the patients was 34.1 +/- 10.7 and 75 (55.6%) of them were male. The duration of illness was 10.4 +/- 7.5 years. The mean score of PSP was found to be 60.0 +/- 17.1. In the reliability analysis, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated to be 0.8327, and item-total score correlations were found to be between 0.4920-0.7462. Intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated to be 0.8324. The inter-rater reliability of PSP performed on 30 schizophrenic patients was found to be 0.973 (p<0.0001). In the validity analyses, the total score of PSP was significantly correlated with the total score of Clinical Global Impression (CGI) (r=-0.854, p<0.0001), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) (r=0.748, p<0.0001), Quality of Life and Satisfaction Questionnaire (QLS-Q) (r=0.734, p<0.0001), and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) (r=-0.664, p<0.0001). There was a significant difference between the patients with and without symptomatic remission (54.8 +/- 14.8 vs. 72.6 +/- 9.8, t=7.434, p<0.0001). Conclusion: The Turkish version of PSP was found to be reliable and valid in severe mental disorders and was sensitive to change. It can be used both in clinical trials and routine clinical practice.