The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS): Conceptual and theoretical foundations

Abstract

The SANS has a number of strengths that make it a useful rating scale for the assessment of negative symptoms. Its psychometric properties have been repeatedly and carefully evaluated, both within the centre where it was originally developed and in a number of other centres throughout the world. The results of these evaluations are remarkably consistent and indicate that the SANS is both reliable and internally cohesive. It is at present widely used in a variety of international settings and thus has become a relatively standard scale for measuring negative symptoms. It has comprehensive coverage and yet, once investigators are familiar with it, it can be completed relatively quickly and efficienty. It can be applied to a variety of time windows and can be used to map the evolution of symptoms over time and their response to treatment in clinical drug trials.