The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) is the shortened version of the Symptoms Checklist-90 inquiring about depressive symptoms in nine dimensions: somatization; obsession-compulsion; interpersonal sensitivity; depression; anxiety; hostility; phobic anxiety; paranoid ideation; and psychoticism (Derogatis 1983).

Number of items: 53

Procedure/Administration: Self-report format.  Respondents rank each item on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). Rankings represent the intensity of distress over the past week (Derogatis 1975).

How scored: Scoring can is done by hand calculation.

Interpretability: Scores are interpreted by comparison to age-appropriate norms. Normative data are available for both clinical and non-clinical samples (Derogatis 1975). Higher normative scores are recommended for SCI populations because of the somatic items (Heinrich & Tate 1994).

Acceptability: N/a

Languages: The instrument requires only a reading knowledge equivalent to that of a sixth grade education and is available in English, Spanish & French.

Usability: N/a

Time to administer: Less than 8-12 minutes to complete.

Time to score: Time is unknown, but likely minimal.

Training required: Minimal training is required to administer the BSI.A specialized degree in health care with an appropriate license or certificate is required to purchase copyrighted forms and manual from the publisher.

Availability: N/a

Equipment required: N/a

Summary:

• The BSI is a well-known and well-accepted instrument.
• The BSI is best used to screen for global psychological distress.
• The inclusion of somatic items may cause an overestimation of psychiatric symptoms in individuals with SCI.
• Normative data are available for a variety of non-SCI populations. The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale was found to have higher sensitivity compared to the BSI when identifying individuals with depression (Tate et al. 1993).

Psychometric Summary

Note: TR= Test re-test; IC= Internal Consistency;Inter-O= Inter-observer; Intra-O= Intra-observer; SS= Sensitivity/Specificity; N/a= No information.

Red light= A single study involving SCI subjects which has less than adequate findings of reliability, validity, and/or responsiveness.

Yellow light= A single study involving subjects with SCI which has adequate to excellent findings of reliability, validity, and/or responsiveness.

Green light= At least 2 studies involving subjects with SCI which have adequate to excellent findings of reliability, validity, and/or responsiveness.

References

• Derogatis LR, Melisaratos N. The Brief Symptom Inventory: in introductory report. Psychol Med 1983; 13(3): 595-605.
• Derogatis FR. The Brief Symptom Inventory. Clinical Psychometric Research 1975: Baltimore.
• Heinrich RK, Tate DG, Buckelew SP. Brief Symptom Inventory norms for spinal cord injury. Rehabil Psychol 1994; 39(1): 49-56.
• Heinrich RK, Tate DG. Latent variable structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory in a sample of persons with spinal cord injuries. Rehab Psychol 1996; 41:131-147.
• Morlan KK, Tan SY. Comparison of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Journal of Clinical Psychology 1998; 54(7): 885-894.
• Schurle Bruce A, Arnett PA. Longitudinal study of the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised in Multiple Sclerosis patients. The Clinical Neuropsychologist 2006; 22:46-59.
• Tate DG, Forcheimer M, Maynard F, Davidoff G, Dijkers M. Comparing Two Measures of Depression in Spinal Cord Injury. Rehabil Psychol 1993;38:53-61.
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