The psychometric properties of the Nepean Belief Scale as a tool for assessing delusions in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders

ObjectivesTo examine the psychometric characteristics of the Nepean Belief Scale (NBS) in psychiatric inpatients with delusions. The NBS is a five-item, clinician-administered scale that assesses the characteristics of beliefs, i.e. conviction, fixity, fluctuation, resistance and awareness that the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comprehensive psychiatry 2022-08, Vol.117, p.152337-152337, Article 152337
Main Authors: Rajendran, Priyadarshini, Van Winssen, Christine, Viswasam, Kirupamani, Tariq, Nooria, Espinoza, David, Starcevic, Vladan, Brakoulias, Vlasios
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beliefs
Bipolar disorder
Cronbach's alpha
Delusions
Interviews
Mental disorders
Neuroses
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Overvalued ideas
Psychosis
Quantitative psychology
Scale
Schizophrenia
Validity
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Summary:ObjectivesTo examine the psychometric characteristics of the Nepean Belief Scale (NBS) in psychiatric inpatients with delusions. The NBS is a five-item, clinician-administered scale that assesses the characteristics of beliefs, i.e. conviction, fixity, fluctuation, resistance and awareness that the belief is unreasonable.MethodsFifty-five patients were interviewed by two clinicians, within three days of admission to an acute psychiatric unit and were assessed using the NBS, the Brown Assessment of Belief Scale (BABS), the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21-Item Version (DASS-21). The NBS was administered after two weeks to available participants, to assess test-retest reliability.ResultsResults demonstrated excellent inter-rater reliability of 0.93, Cronbach's alpha coefficient for internal consistency was 0.77. The NBS was found to have good convergent validity with the BABS and good discriminant validity with the DASS. Two-week test-retest reliability suggests that the NBS is sensitive to therapeutic change.ConclusionsAdvantages of the NBS include its brevity, its ability to assess belief-related insight, its clear instructions and its definitions of belief characteristics. Thus, the NBS has the potential to greatly improve our ability to more objectively assess delusional beliefs.
ISSN:0010-440X
1532-8384
DOI:10.1016/j.comppsych.2022.152337