Factor Analysis of Outpatient Clinical Data

¹ Research and Development Division, Smith Kline & French Laboratories, Philadelphia, Penn.

The Physician's Rating List (PRL) was designed for outpatient studies. Factor analysis of the 18-item PRL developed three groups of symptoms that can be classified as anxiety manifestations, psychosomatic complaints, and depression. These are symptom complexes known to be present in psychoneurotic patients.

Few objective criteria can discriminate between psychoactive drug regimens, especially between a combination and one of its components. The fact that the PRL was able to discriminate and show that a combination of trifluoperazine and amobarbital provided a significantly greater reduction of anxiety and total morbidity than trifluoperazine alone suggests that the scale may be useful for obtaining objective data in outpatient studies. The PRL appears to be a more sensitive indicator of drug activity in psychoneurotic patients than global efficacy ratings.

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