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The Agitated Behavior Scale
Despite the frequency of agitation in patients with traumatic brain injuries,
as well as the need to treat agitation, until recently there has not been
an objective measure of agitation. The Agitated Behavior Scale (ABS; Corrigan,
1989) was developed to allow objective assessment of this behavior, particularly
serial assessments for the evaluation of interventions to reduce agitation.
To construct the ABS, a preliminary pool of 39 items was generated from
review of the literature and use of Kelly's (1955) construct elicitation
methodology with interdisciplinary staff experienced in brain injury rehabilitation.
In a pilot study, 14 items were selected from this pool based on degree
of inter-rater reliability, differentiation of agitation, frequency of
occurrence, and representation of factors present in the original item
pool. The final 14-item scale was then validated on an independent sample
and was found to have appropriate levels of inter-rater reliability, internal
consistency and concurrent validity (Corrigan, 1989).
The ABS was developed to assess the nature and extent of agitation during the acute phase of recovery from acquired brain injury. Its primary purpose is to allow serial assessment of agitation by treatment professionals who want objective feedback about the course of a patient's agitation. Serial assessments are particularly important when treatment interventions are being attempted. This instrument may be useful with populations other than patients recovering from acquired brain injury. Tabloski, McKinnon-Howe, and Remington (1995) and Corrigan, Bogner, and Tabloski (1996) demonstrated the utility of the ABS for measuring agitation in nursing home residents with progressive dementias, primarily Alzheimer's disease.