Evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of the Schizophrenia cognition rating scale

Abstract

Cognitive impairments are frequently observed in schizophrenia and significantly affect patient functioning. The Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS) is a clinician-rated interview of everyday cognitive functioning; accurate appraisal of its discriminative performance is important for clinical assessment and treatment planning. Three pairs of sensitivity and specificity values extracted from the literature were analyzed. Due to the limited number of available pairs, three additional pairs estimated by graphical interpolation of the ROC curve were added. The AUC value, Spearman and Kendall correlations, linear regression, Mann–Whitney U test, and normality were calculated using multiple statistical tests. The AUC was 0.846, indicating good discrimination capacity. Spearman’s rho (r_s = −0.83, p = 0.02) and Kendall’s tau (τ = −0.73, p = 0.01) were negative and statistically significant. The Mann–Whitney U test did not reach conventional significance (U = 6, p = 0.065). The Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale demonstrated satisfactory discriminative accuracy and meaningful associations with functional parameters. These results support its clinical utility in assessing cognitive deficits in schizophrenia; however, further validation in larger samples is recommended.