Brief Symptom Inventory

BSI

Leonard R. Derogatis, PhD

The efficient Brief Symptom Inventory^® instrument provides patient-reported data to support clinical decision-making at intake and during the course of treatment in multiple settings. Use BSI^® to help assess patients and objectively support care management decisions. Guidance on using this test in your telepractice.

Publication date: 1993

Age range: Individuals 13 years and older

Reading level: 6th grade

Qualification level: B Additional information

Completion time: 8–10 minutes (53 items; 5-point rating scale)

Administration: Paper-and-pencil, CD, or computer administration

Scoring options: Q-global® web-based, Q Local™ Software, Mail-in and manual

Report options: Interpretive, Profile, and Progress Reports

Norms: Adult nonpatients, Adult psychiatric outpatients, Adult psychiatric inpatients, Adolescent nonpatients

Other languages: English, Spanish, French for Canada

Telepractice: Guidance on using this test in your telepractice

Psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals can use the BSI instrument to measure patient progress during and after treatment to monitor change. BASI also provides outcomes measurement for treatment programs and providers through aggregated patient information.

Benefits

Assess patients at intake for psychological problems.
Objectively support care management decisions.
Measure patient progress during and after treatment to monitor change.
Provide outcomes measurement for treatment programs and providers through aggregated patient information.

Features

The BSI instrument provides an overview of a patient's symptoms and their intensity at a specific point in time.

Takes 8-10 minutes to complete, making it well-suited for repeated administrations over time to evaluate patient progress.
The Global Severity Index helps quantify a patient's severity-of-illness and provides a single composite score for measuring the outcome of a treatment program.
The reliability, validity, and utility of the BSI instrument have been tested in more than 400 research studies.
Nine Symptom Scales are scored: Somatization (SOM), Obsessive Compulsive (O-C), Interpersonal Sensitivity (I-S), Depression (DEP), Anxiety (ANX), Hostility (HOS), Phobi Anxiety (PHOB), Paranoid Ideation (PAR), and Psychoticism (PSY).
Includes three Global Indices: Global Severity Index (GSI), Positive Symptoms Distress Index (PSDI) and Positive Symptom Total (PST).

Sample Reports

Profile Report: presents raw and normalized T scores for each of the nine Primary Symptom Dimensions and the three Global Indices.

Interpret Report: provides a narrative overview of the client's symptoms at the global level and specific statements describing the individual symptom scale scores.

Progress Report: monitors a client’s progress over time.

The following resources are available for BSI.

Case Studies

Q-global Training Series

Frequently asked questions follow. Click on a question to see the response.

Do any of the BSI reports contain all of the normative groups?

The BSI Interpretive and Profile Reports provide information on all three adult normative groups: nonpatient, psychiatric outpatient, and psychiatric inpatient. The BSI Profile Report graphically displays the data using the norm group of your choice. The BSI Interpretive Report graphically displays the data using the nonpatient norms. The other T scores are listed below this profile graph.

How can I find out the statistical relationships between the BSI test and SCL-90-R assessments?

Is the BSI available in other languages?

What is the difference between the SCL-90-R assessment and the original SCL-90 assessment?

The SCL-90 assessment is an unnormed precursor to the SCL-90-R assessment. The original SCL-90 anxiety scale did not work and its obsessive-compulsive scale was very weak. After the assessment was revised, norms were developed for the revised assessment (SCL-90-R), and the BSI assessment was developed from that. Most research has been conducted using the SCL-90-R and BSI instruments.

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Brief Symptom Inventory

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Sample Reports

Case Studies

Q-global Training Series

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