Evaluation of the Illness Management and Recovery Scale in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the parallel client and clinician versions of the Illness Management and Recovery Scale (IMRS) developed to monitor the clients' progress in the Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) program in schizophrenia. A total of 107 study participants completed assessments of the IMRS, interview-based ratings of psychiatric symptoms, self-ratings of psychiatric symptoms, perception of recovery, and quality of life. Case managers completed the clinician version of the IMRS. Both versions of the scale demonstrated satisfactory internal reliability and strong test-retest reliability. The results also indicated convergent validity with interview-based ratings of psychiatric symptoms, self-rated symptoms, perception of recovery, and quality of life for both versions of the IMRS. These findings support the utility of the IMRS as a measure of illness self-management and recovery in clients with schizophrenia.