The SPQ-B: A Brief Screening Instrument for Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Currently there are no brief screening instruments for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defined schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). This study reports the development of a brief, 2-minute, 22-item self-report screening instrument, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B), for SPD. Four independent subject samples provided the basis for test development. The SPQ-B contains a total scale score and three subscales to assess the three main factors of SPD, viz. Cognitive-Perceptual Deficits, Interpersonal Deficits, and Disorganization. Reliability for the scales averaged 0.76, and scale scores correlated significantly with independent clinical ratings of DSM-III-R schizotypal traits (average r = 0.62), indicating criterion validity for the scales. The SPQ-B is recommended for use in large-scale screening for SPD prior to a confirmatory clinical interview and also for dimensional research on the correlates of schizotypal features in the normal population.