Treatment effectiveness in patients with schizophrenia as measured by the ASSESS battery - first longitudinal data.

BACKGROUND Effective pharmacological treatment with a favorable side-effect profile increases treatment adherence and is therefore very important for patients with schizophrenia. Psychiatrists need easy to use and reliable assessments instruments to evaluate treatment effectiveness in their patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A group of European leading psychiatrists have proposed a framework for the assessment of treatment effectiveness in patients with schizophrenia - the ASSESS battery (The ASseSsment of EffectivenesS in Schizophrenia Battery) which evaluates the effectiveness of treatment during both the remission and the relapse periods. ASSESS includes: 10 items of Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), Medication Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), and Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP). The battery assesses five domains: symptomatic remission and retention of treatment, affective symptoms, cognitive functioning, treatment satisfaction and personal and social functioning. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the applicability of ASSESS in real world practice. RESULTS The variations of the PANSS items rated during the study indicate a significant improvement of psychopathology. A similar improvement was observed in cognition, social functioning and treatment satisfaction as shown by BACS, PSP and MSQ scales. Cognitive impairment, personal and social functioning, and treatment satisfaction were correlated with the remission or augmentation of positive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS This pilot study revealed that ASSESS is easy to apply in clinical practice and is a suitable tool for psychiatrists since it covers all the relevant aspects of the course of schizophrenia in a compact form.