Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale

Objective: Akathisia, characterized by a sense of inner restlessness and a constant need for motion is a condition that relies on subjective symptoms. Thus, physicians can easily overlook akathisia due to the lack of objective findings. In this study, we aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS) to help with the diagnosis and to provide an objective tool for research studies.
Materials and Methods: The BARS was translated and back-translated by a group of five doctors. Forty patients with schizophrenia who were taking antipsychotic drugs were evaluated using the Turkish version of the BARS by two raters independently. Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency and Cohen’s kappa for inter-rater reliability was calculated.
Results: In terms of internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha values for each rater were above 0.8 (0.820 and 0.836), which show high reliability for the scale. In terms of inter-rater reliability, all Cohen’s kappa values were above 0.7 (0.706, 0.804, 0.864, 0.881), showing high agreement between the raters.
Conclusion: High values of inter-rater reliability for all items in the scale and high internal consistency values indicate that the Turkish version of the BARS can be used reliably.