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frontal-systems-behavior-scale

BPAD

Behavioral and Psychological Assessment of Dementia

Kara S. Schmidt, PhD, and Jennifer L. Gallo, PhD

Purpose:
Assesses changes in behavior and mood associated with the onset of various dementia syndromes
Format:
Paper and pencil, Download, E-Manual
Age range:
30 years to 90 years
Time:
15 minutes
Qualification level:
B
B
A degree from an accredited 4-year college or university in psychology, counseling, speech-language pathology, or a closely related field plus satisfactory completion of coursework in test interpretation, psychometrics and measurement theory, educational statistics, or a closely related area; or license or certification from an agency that requires appropriate training and experience in the ethical and competent use of psychological tests. Close

The BPAD is a standardized informant report that assesses the changes in both behavior and mood that are associated with the onset and course of various dementia syndromes.

Features and benefits

  • Categorizes symptoms into three clusters (i.e., Psychopathological, Behavioral, Biological) and further, into seven domains (i.e., Perceptual/Delusional, Positive Mood/Anxiety, Negative Mood/Anxiety, Aggressive, Perseverative/Rigid, Disinhibited, Biological Rhythms).
  • Response Booklet is large-print to simplify completion by individuals with vision difficulties.
  • Can be employed in a wide range of settings (e.g., outpatient clinics, assisted living settings, clinical research settings) with heterogeneous groups of individuals with suspected or diagnosed dementia (e.g., patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, patients with vascular dementia, psychiatric patients with suspected dementia).

Test structure

  • During administration, the respondent is asked about symptoms the patient has exhibited both within the past 4 weeks and 5 years ago. To differentiate symptoms associated with long-standing psychiatric illness from symptoms associated with the onset of behavioral disturbance related to dementia, the BPAD assesses the symptoms over these two time periods and computes a change score that captures information about changes in mood and behavior specific to the onset and course of dementia.
  • Administration is done using the large-print Response Booklet and pencil, takes 15 minutes to complete, and should be completed by family members, paraprofessionals, or other professionals ages 18-90 who have regular contact with individuals who have suspected or diagnosed dementia.
  • Items are written at a sixth-grade reading level.

Technical information

Standardized and validated on a sample of men and women ages 30-90 years; these rated adults came from a wide range of racial/ethnic and educational backgrounds and geographic regions, and the sample was matched to U.S Census proportions.

The BPAD-SP makes scoring easy

  • After hand-entry of raw scores, the easy-to-use BPAD Software Portfolio (BPAD-SP) generates scores that represent current impairment (i.e., CURRENT), past impairment (i.e., PAST), and change in impairment over time (i.e., CHANGE).
  • The Score Report also provides T scores and percentiles for the BPAD Total and domain scores and graphical presentation of BPAD T scores.
  • The BPAD-SP is included in the BPAD Introductory Kit and provides unlimited scoring and report generation.