Tools used to measure agitated behaviours
| Tools | Description |
| Agitated Behaviour Scale74 | Scale of 14 items with 4 levels of scoring to assess the nature and extent of agitation during the acute recovery of traumatic brain. Total scores >21 are considered as agitation. |
| Brief Anger and Aggression Scale75 | A six-item measure developed for the rapid screening and identification of anger and aggression levels. |
| Confusion assessment protocol76 | Combination of orientation, cognition and other clinical measures of early confusion following traumatic brain injury. |
| Functional independence measure77 | Functional assessment measure with a 18-item ordinal scale used in the rehabilitation population. It offers a useful assessment of patient progress during inpatient rehabilitation. |
| Global improvement subscale of the Clinical Global Impressions (CGI)78 | The CGI is a 3-item observer-rated scale that measures illness severity (CGIS), global improvement or change (CGIC) and therapeutic response. |
| Belligerence cluster score for the Katz adjustment scale (KAS)79 | The KAS is an observer rating scale used to assess the social adjustment of people with traumatic brain injury. |
| Neuropsychiatric inventory irritability (NPI-I) and aggression domains (NPI-A)52 | The NPI is a 40-item scale evaluating 12 behavioural domains including irritability and aggression. The NPI-I items include bad temper, rapid mood changes, sudden anger, impatience, crankiness and argumentative. Raters evaluate frequency and severity of behaviours in the last month. The NPI aggression domain assesses the tendency to get upset, resistance to activities, stubbornness, uncooperativeness, shouting, cursing and physical behaviours indicative of aggression. The NPI score is the product of frequency and severity. The worst item score provided by the scorer is NPI-I or NPI-A most aberrant. |
| Neurobehavioral Function Inventory (NFI)80 | The NFI provides information on the frequency of behaviours and symptoms commonly associated with brain injury. Two versions of the NFI are available, one for completion by family members, another for completion by the person with the injury. |
| Neurobehavioral rating scale (NRS)81 | The NRS is a 28-item observer-rated instrument that measures a broad range of cognitive and noncognitive symptoms. It measures symptoms associated with psychiatric disorders as well as cognitive impairment and behavioural disturbances. |
| Overt aggression scale (OAS)82 | Scale for the objective rating of verbal and physical aggression. The OAS measures aggressive behaviours divided into 4 categories: verbal aggression, physical aggression against objects, physical aggression against self and physical aggression against others. |
| Anger-Hostility factor score of the Profile of Mood States (POMS)32 | The POMS consists of 65 adjectives that describe moods or feelings, to which the patient responds on a 5-point scale that ranges from ‘Not at all’ to ‘Extremely’. The POMS measures six identifiable mood/affective states: tension-anxiety, depression-dejection, anger-hostility, vigor-activity (V); fatigue-inertia (F) and confusion-bewilderment (C). |
| State-Trait Anger Scale (STAS)32 | The STAS is a 20-item self-report scale assessing two types of anger (State and Strait). State anger is comprised of tension, annoyance, irritability or rage. Whereas trait anger is the frequency with which a person feels state anger over time. |