Abstract
BackgroundThe Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptic Treatment Scale short form (SWN-K) is a self-rating scale developed to measure mentally ill patients' well-being under the antipsychotic drug treatment. This paper reports on adaptation and psychometric properties of the instrument in an Estonian psychiatric sample.MethodsIn a naturalistic study design, 124 inpatients or outpatients suffering from the first psychotic episode or chronic psychotic illness completed the translated SWN-K instrument. Item content analysis, internal consistency analysis, exploratory principal components analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to construct the Estonian version of the SWN-K (SWN-K-E). Additionally, socio-demographic and clinical data, observer-rated psychopathology, medication side effects, daily antipsychotic drug dosages, and general functioning were assessed at two time points, at baseline and after a 29-week period; the associations of the SWN-K-E scores with these variables were explored.ResultsAfter having selected 20 items for the Estonian adaptation, the internal consistency of the total SWN-K-E was 0.93 and the subscale consistencies ranged from 0.70 to 0.80. Good test–retest reliabilities were observed for the adapted scale scores, with the correlation of the total score over about 6 months being r = 0.70. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the presence of a higher-order factor (general well-being) and five first-order factors (mental functioning, physical functioning, social integration, emotional regulation, and self-control); the model fitted the data well. The results indicated a moderate-high correlations r = 0.54 between the SWN-K-E total score and the evaluation how satisfied patients were with their lives in generally. No significant correlations were found between the overall subjective well-being score and age, severity of the psychopathology, drug adverse effects, or prescribed drug dosage.ConclusionTaken together, the results demonstrated that the Estonian version of the SWN-K is a reliable and valid instrument with psychometric properties similar to the original English version. The potential uses of the scale in both research and clinical settings are considered.
Highlights
The Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptic Treatment Scale short form (SWN-K) is a self-rating scale developed to measure mentally ill patients' well-being under the antipsychotic drug treatment
The results indicated that all items loaded on the first unrotated principal component with loadings ranging from 0.27 to 0.74; the first component explained 40.07% of variance in items
According to the principal component analysis (PCA), the principal component intercorrelations ranged from r = 0.24 to 0.36
Summary
The Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptic Treatment Scale short form (SWN-K) is a self-rating scale developed to measure mentally ill patients' well-being under the antipsychotic drug treatment. The objective component comprises aspects of “functional status” and “environmental living conditions”, whereas the subjective component refers to perceived “well-being” or “life satisfaction [2].”. As for the latter, both illness and treatment can cause distress and contribute to low well-being evaluations. Patients recognize the symptoms of their illness and treatment side effects in similar terms: both can reduce of their well-being. Treatment is perceived negatively if it fails to sufficiently reduce psychotic symptoms and/ or causes substantial side effects and when it fails to improve well-being for any reason that is not strictly related to the disorder or treatment [3]
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