Initial development and preliminary psychometric properties of the Prodromal Inventory of Negative Symptoms (PINS)

Andrea Pelletier-Baldelli*, Gregory P. Strauss, Katherine H. Visser, Vijay A. Mittal

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the psychosis prodrome, sub-threshold positive symptoms are often preceded by negative symptoms. Individuals exhibiting these attenuated symptoms are primarily adolescents and young adults at clinical high-risk (CHR) for developing a psychotic disorder. In the CHR state, negative symptoms are highly predictive of the transition to diagnosable illness, making the assessment of these symptoms very important. Existing scales used to evaluate negative symptoms in this critical population are informative but have conceptual and psychometric limitations and/or were not designed according to modern conceptions delineated in the 2005 NIMH Negative Symptom Consensus Conference. The current study reports the development of the Prodromal Interview of Negative Symptoms (PINS) – a next-generation scale designed in accordance with the consensus conference recommendations. Preliminary data on the psychometric properties of the PINS is reported as part of ongoing scale development that will use a data-driven, iterative process to generate a final scale. Analysis of data from 53 CHR cases, 30 of whom were re-evaluated at 12 months, indicated that the beta version of the PINS demonstrated good internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. These preliminary findings provide direction for a revision of this measure, which resulted in the PINS-2, a promising new measure for the assessment of negative symptoms in CHR populations. This manuscript presents both the initial scale and resulting untested instrument, as well as a series of plans and recommendations for future development.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)43-49
Number of pages7
JournalSchizophrenia Research
Volume189
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2017

Keywords

  • Assessment
  • Negative symptoms
  • Prodrome
  • Psychosis risk

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Biological Psychiatry

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