The general adult inpatient psychiatric assessment scale (GAIPAS)

The General Adult Inpatient Psychiatric Assessment Scale (GAIPAS) is a "here and now" testing instrument based on the general mental status examination. The unique features of the GAIPAS include high interrater reliability with minimal training, "forced choice" format, a scoring method for hostile patients, brief administration time, and a format that lends itself to direct key punch of data. The GAIPAS may be used to follow a symptom, a set of symptoms, or collapsed into a single number comparable to the Global Assessment Scale. Interrater reliability of GAIPAS by interviewer/observer design is given in detail. The GAIPAS is compared to the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and Global Assessment Scale (GAS) in the same population for interrater reliability.