Establishing the cut-off score for aggression on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Excited Component (BPRS-EC) in schizophrenia patients

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to present the scalability and cut-off score for the presence of aggression on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Excited Component (BPRS-EC) in schizophrenia patients. METHODS: From the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antipsychotics, 1,438 Asian patients with schizophrenia were recruited in present study. The Mokken analysis was used to evaluate scalability of the BPRS-EC. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to establish the optimal cut-off score for the presence of aggression on the BPRS-6 in schizophrenia patients. RESULTS: The Mokken model presented that the scalability of the BPRS-EC was considered to have a strong “unidimensionality” (coefficient of scalability = 0.57). The ROC curve showed that, with the cut-off score of 5, the total score on the BPRS-EC distinguished the absence and presence of aggression in schizophrenia patients. CONCLUSION: The BPRS-EC can be used as a supplementary scale for evaluating aggression in patients with schizophrenia.