Assessment of beliefs about psychotropic medication and psychotherapy: development of a measure for patients with anxiety disorders☆
Received 25 March 2005; accepted 17 May 2005.
Abstract
Objective
This study presents the psychometric properties of a brief measure to assess beliefs about psychotropic medications and psychotherapy among patients with anxiety disorders.
Method
Data were collected on a large sample of primary care patients with a range of anxiety disorders, as part of the Collaborative Care for Anxiety and Panic study. Factor analyses using principal axis factoring with Varimax rotations were used to determine the factor structure of the beliefs scale. Internal consistency, concurrent validity and predictive validity of the resulting subscales were examined.
Results
Two subscales emerged, one reflecting beliefs about psychotropic medications and the other assessing beliefs about psychotherapy. Both showed strong internal consistency and concurrent validity. The beliefs about psychotropic medication demonstrated strong predictive validity.
Conclusions
This measure may be a useful tool for assessing treatment beliefs among patients with anxiety disorders toward the provision of more quality treatment for this population. Its brevity may make it particularly useful in primary health care settings.
aDepartment of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
bDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine at Harborview Medical Center, Box 359911, Seattle, WA 98104-2499, USA
cDepartment of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
☆ This work was performed through the University of Washington, Seattle, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, San Diego.
ABSTRACT