The Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI 18) is designed with reliability in mind. The BSI 18 assessment gathers patient-reported data to help measure psychological distress and psychiatric disorders in medical and community populations. As the latest in an integrated series of test instruments that include the SCL-90-R®, BSI® (53 questions), and DPRS® instruments, the BSI 18 test offers a more effective, easy-to-administer tool to help support clinical decision-making and monitor progress throughout treatment.
How To Use This Test
Psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals can use the BSI 18 assessment to help:
- Assess patients at intake for psychological problems
- Measure patient progress during and after treatment to monitor change
- Support managed care decisions
- Provide outcomes measurement for treatment programs
Key Features
- The BSI 18 test can be completed in approximately 4 minutes. Designed to be brief and easy to administer, the BSI 18 assessment is well-suited for helping measure symptom change throughout treatment.
- The test helps measure three primary symptom dimensions and is designed to provide an overview of a patients symptoms and their intensity at a specific point in time.
- Dimension and global scores form the BSI 18 test correlate highly (i.e., > .90) with analogous score from the SCL-90-R test based on a large community population.
Quick Facts
| Administer To | Individuals 18 years and older |
| Reading Level | 6th grade |
| Completion Time | Approx. 4 minutes (18 items; 5-point rating scale) |
| Formats | Paper-and-pencil or computer administration |
| Report Options | Profile and Progress |
| Scoring Options | Q™ Local Software
Hand Scoring
Fax-in Service
PAD (Patient Assessment Device) Hand-held Electronic Device
Optical Scan Scoring |
| Scales | Depression, Anxiety, and Somatization
Global Severity Index |
| Norm Groups | Adult community and adult oncology |
About the Author
Leonard R. Derogatis received his Ph.D. from Catholic University in 1965, and began his academic career at the Biometrics Laboratory of George Washington University, where he was involved in the design and analysis for NIH-sponsored clinical drug trials. He subsequently accepted a position at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he was on the faculty for 21 years, 12 of them as Director of the Division of Medical Psychology, and Chief Psychologist of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. While at Hopkins, Dr. Derogatis became involved with sexual medicine as one of the early faculty attending in the Hopkins Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit.
Dr. Derogatis has authored more than a dozen psychological test instruments, and over 120 scientific papers. He has been the recipient of numerous federal grant awards, and has served as principal investigator on many multi-center clinical drug trials in the treatment of male and female sexual dysfunctions. In 2003, Dr. Derogatis returned to Johns Hopkins to direct the new Center for Sexual Medicine, and most recently in 2006, moved the Center to Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Baltimore County. His personal research is currently primarily in the area of sexual medicine, where he is doing sponsored research on the screening, diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders.
Scales Symptom Scales
SOM - Somatization
DEP - Depression
ANX - Anxiety
Global Indices
GSI - Global Severity Index, Helps measure overall psychological distress level
Norm Groups Adult community norms
The adult community norms are based on 1,122 individuals—605 males and 517 females.
Oncology Norms
The oncology norms are based on 1,543 individuals—802 males and 741 females.
Report Options Profile Report (Product Number 51947)
Presents raw and normalized T scores for each of the three Primary Symptom Dimensions and the Global Severity Index. The plotted T scores are based on your choice of the community or oncology norms (the T scores for the remaining norm group are printed below the profile).
View a sample Profile Report (Community Norms).
View a sample Profile Report (Oncology Norms).
Progress Report (Product Number 51948)
This report is designed for monitoring a client's progress over time. Provided at no additional charge, it graphically displays scale by scale changes in a client's scores for up to five previously reported BSI 18 administrations.
Scoring Options Q™ Local Software - Enables you to score assessments, report results, and store and export data on your computer.
Hand Scoring - Administer assessments on answer sheets and score them quickly yourself with an answer key.
Fax-in Service - Specially designed answer sheets are faxed to us for processing within 1-2 hours of receipt and returned via fax.
PAD (Patient Assessment Device) Hand-held Electronic Device - Administer the test on a portable, hand-held device. The PAD is placed on a docking station connected to a printer and a results report is printed immediately.