OBJECTIVE To develop and test the validity and reliability of the Withdrawal Assessment Tool-1 for monitoring opioid and benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms in pediatric patients. DESIGN Prospective psychometric evaluation. Pediatric critical care nurses assessed eligible at-risk pediatric patients for the presence of 19 withdrawal symptoms and rated the patient's overall withdrawal intensity ...

Questionnaires are one of the foundations of psychometric measurement in clinical psychosomatics. We collected mobile computer-based assessments of psychometric data from more than 7000 patients between January 1995 and December 2002. Our experience has shown that this mobile approach enjoys a high acceptance among patients, is effective and two-thirds cheaper than conventional questionnaires u...

This article reviews several current issues associated with the definition and assessment of personality disorders (PDs) as defined in the third and fourth editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Specifically reviewed are issues associated with classification, PD conceptualizations, and the assessment of these disorders. DSM PD categories are also reviewed i...

Background: Family is the primary setting where children develop their social skills. Early experiences may represent protective or risk factors that interact with their vulnerability to or resilience against mental disorders in adulthood. The assessment of the family history of relevant emotional experiences is problematic, and the use of psychometric instruments may help overcome certain meth...

BACKGROUND Spasticity in the upper limb is common after acquired brain impairment and may have a significant impact on the ability to perform meaningful daily activities. Traditionally, outcome measurement in spasticity rehabilitation has focused on impairment, however, improvements in impairments do not necessarily translate to improvements in an individual's ability to perform activities or e...

Symptoms are important patient-reported outcomes (PRO), which help to evaluate the impact of diseases and treatments and assess quality of care. Thorough symptom assessment is a challenge, as patients in palliative settings are often polysymptomatic and easily fatigued. There is no consensus about standardization of symptom assessment in palliative medicine. The available research provides some...

OBJECTIVE To report the psychometric properties of an alternative instrument to the cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale, a neuropsychological test battery (NTB) for measuring drug efficacy in Alzheimer disease clinical trials. DESIGN The NTB was evaluated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of AN1792(QS-21) (synthetic beta-amyloid plus an adjuvan...

OBJECTIVE Cancer may impact negatively on an informal caregiver's health long after treatment has ended. This review identifies the self-report measures currently in use to measure caregivers need for support and determines their scientific soundness and clinical utility. METHOD A systematic electronic database search of Medline, CINAHL, PsychINFO, BNI ProQuest was conducted. The psychometric...