Clinical Global Impression (CGI) Scale

A Clinical Global Impression (CGI) Scale is a clinical scale that assesses the overall severity and improvement of symptoms in a clinical setting.

• Context:
  • It can range from being a Clinical Global Impression Severity (CGI-S) Scale, to being a Clinical Global Impression Efficacy Index, to being a Clinical Global Impression Improvement (CGI-I) Scale.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • a patient's level of anxiety that has been labelled as "Moderately ill" according to a CGI-S rating,
  • an elderly patient's cognitive impairment that has been labelled as "Minimally worse" according to a CGI-I rating,
  • a patient's severity of depression hat has been labelled as "Borderline mentally ill" according to a CGI-S rating,
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS),
  • Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale,
  • Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD).
• See: Subjectivity, Mental Disorders, Physical Health Examination Task, Clinical Practice, Health Assessment, Pain Scale, Healthcare Professional, Clinical Endpoint.

---

---

References

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_global_impression Retrieved:2023-6-21.
  • The clinical global impression (CGI) rating scales are measures of symptom severity, treatment response and the efficacy of treatments in treatment studies of patients with mental disorders. It is a brief 3-item observer-rated scale that can be used in clinical practice as well as in researches to track symptom changes. It was developed by Early Clinical Drug Evaluation Program (ECDEU) team of researchers for use in NIMH-led clinical trials that could provide clinical judgment based assessment for determining the severity of symptoms and the treatment progress. This was meant to assess the patient's functioning prior to and after initiating medication in trials which is an important part of study process. Its 3 items assess, 1) Severity of Illness (CGI-S), 2) Global Improvement (CGI-I), and 3) Efficacy Index (CGI-E, which is a measure of treatment effect and side effects specific to drugs that were administered). Many researchers, while recognizing the validity of the scale, consider it to be subjective as it requires the user of the scale to compare the subjects to typical patients in the clinician experience.

---