Introduction: Standardized consensus criteria for remission in schizophrenia were recently proposed. As yet, the validity of these criteria and their comparability with previously used outcome measures are unclear.
Methods: The symptom-severity component of the proposed remission criteria was applied to 288 inpatients who fulfilled the ICD-10 criteria for schizophrenia. Global functioning and psychopathological symptoms were assessed using GAF, PANSS, SANS, HAM-D and CDSS.
Results: When patients with symptom remission at discharge from hospitalization (n=158, 54.9%) were compared to those without symptom remission, significant differences were found with respect to the global functioning (GAF) and all observed psychopathological symptom dimensions. The percentage agreement with previously used outcome measures ranged between 52.6 and 80.0%, the kappa values between 0.120 and 0.594. A moderate accordance (kappa value: 0.495) was found with a Clinical Global Impression (CGI) severity score of three or less.
Discussion: The results indicate a high descriptive validity of the symptom-severity component of the proposed remission definition. However, the new criteria differ partially from previously used outcome measures. This aspect should be considered in the interpretation of clinical trials.