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Clinician-rated psychosis

Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale

PANSS is a trained clinician rating of psychosis-related symptoms. This page is catalogue information. It is not a self-test.

Clinician-ratedTrained raterOfficial anchorsNot a self-test

What is the PANSS?

The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale is used in specialist psychosis services and trials to rate positive, negative, and general psychopathology items after interview and observation.

Development and clinical use

Kay, Fiszbein and Opler published PANSS. Structured interview guides and publisher scoring materials followed. Rater training is part of competent use.

Administrator
Trained clinician
Mode
Interview and observation
Digital DIY
Not supported here
Rater training
Required
Clinical role
Severity support
Diagnosis
Not established by score

A focused clinician rating

A trained rater interviews the person and records the 30 ratings in the clinician completion view. Lirena does not send PANSS to the client.

  • One rated item at a time with visible progress
  • Keyboard-operable response choices
  • Previous, next, and review steps for the rater
  • Clear confirmation that the rating is stored for clinic review
Clinician viewItem 1 of 30

P1 Delusions

PreviousNext item

Designed to make evidence easy to review

The downloadable synthetic example illustrates report layout using invented response patterns, without patient data or instrument questions.

  • Named instrument, version, and provenance
  • Item-level response pattern without source wording
  • Methodology, references, and clinical boundary
  • Responsible clinician review rather than automated conclusions
Download the four-page sample
LIRENASynthetic example
Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale
ReviewContextSource

Clinician review required

Understand the measure and its scoring conventions

Each of the 30 items is rated from 1 (absent) to 7 (extreme) for the past week. The total runs from 30 to 210, with positive (7-49), negative (7-49) and general psychopathology (16-112) scales. No cutoff is applied.

  1. Original PANSS paperKay SR, Fiszbein A, Opler LA. The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS). Schizophr Bull. 1987;13(2):261-276.

What clinics ask before they evaluate the PANSS

These answers stay inside educational catalogue scope. They do not replace official manuals or clinician judgement.

Can a patient complete PANSS online?

No. It is a trained clinician rating made after interview and observation.

Does PANSS diagnose schizophrenia?

No. It rates named symptom domains for specialist review.

Can I complete it here?

No. This page is educational catalogue information.

What is required before use?

Rater training, official anchors, and local governance.

See how clinician-rated psychosis measures stay in specialist hands.

More Psychosis assessments