[Spanish validation of the Iowa Rating Scale for Personality Change (IRSPC) for the appraisal of changes in personality in patients with acquired brain injury].

INTRODUCTION: The Iowa Rating Scale for Personality Change (IRSPC) presents some features (puts an emphasis on the motivational and emotional functions; evaluates the 'cognitive' executive functions in the daily life; estimates the premorbid personality; values the informant reliability) that make it use really interesting for both clinical and research.

AIM: The aim of this study was the Spanish validation of the IRSPC, which evaluates the 'personality changes' secondary to prefrontal cortex brain injury and particularly those located in the ventromedial area.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: After the translation and the Spanish adaptation of the scale guide, we carried out a validation study with 31 patients suffering from traumatic brain injury, getting good reliability.

RESULTS: The data obtained by measuring the internal consistency of the IRSPC and the inter rater and test-retest reliability support this statement. The instrument validity is confirmed by the results of the concurrent validity (comparing IRSPC and Neuropsychiatric Inventory) and the construct validity (scores before and after the trauma).

CONCLUSIONS: The IRSPC is a valid and reliable instrument for clinical examination in the context of a comprehensive evaluation of the symptoms resulting from neurological diseases and particularly from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex injury.