Abstract
The Symptom Checklist 90–Revised (SCL-90-R) is an international, widely used, self-report questionnaire of multidimensional
complaints with normative data for healthy control subjects and psychiatric patients. The questionnaire
is also often used in neurological patients. Little is known about the amount and pattern of complaints in this group,
and normative data are lacking. We therefore analyzed self-reported symptoms on the SCL-90-R of a neurological
population (N = 600). Moreover, we compared the answer patterns of five subgroups: neurodegenerative disease,
cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, brain tumor, and traumatic brain injury. Neurological outpatients scored significantly
higher in comparison with normative data from healthy control subjects, with most pronounced scores on
Inadequacy of Thinking and Acting, Depression, and Somatization (p < .01, effect sizes 1.69, 0.83, and 0.83). No
differences between the various pathologies were found. Although it is difficult to determine whether the complaints
arise directly from the neurological disease or more indirectly from psychiatric disturbances accompanying the
disease, simply comparing a neurological patient to normative data for healthy control subjects can lead to
inappropriate classifications. Complaints of our patients should not be directly interpreted as psychopathology.
A two-step procedure in which scores on the SCL-90-R are first compared to healthy control subjects and secondly
to neurological patients can be helpful in the interpretation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 170-177 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology |
Volume | 36 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Econometric and Statistical Methods: General
- Geneeskunde (GENK)
- Geneeskunde(GENK)
- Psychologie (PSYC)
- Medical sciences
- Bescherming en bevordering van de menselijke gezondheid