Validation of Revised Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test in the Indian (Bengali) Population: A Preliminary Study

Overview

Journal Indian J Psychiatry

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2021 Jun 4

PMID 34083824

Citations 2

Authors

Madhushree Chakrabarty

Gargi Dasgupta

Rudraprasad Acharya

Seshadri Sekhar Chatterjee

Prathama Guha

Matthew K Belmonte

Kaberi Bhattacharya

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Social cognition deficits are common in clinical populations but there is a dearth of standardized social cognition assessment tools in India. Theory of mind (ToM) is an important aspect of social cognition which is often assessed with the revised reading the mind in eyes test (RMET-R). However, we do not have a statistically validated version of the test for the Indian population.

Aim: This study aims to assess the acceptability, reliability, and validity of the Bengali version of the RMET-R.

Materials And Methods: We administered the RMET-R to 23 patients with chronic schizophrenia (SCZ), 22 patients with bipolar disorder, and 104 healthy controls (HCs) to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument in the Indian (Bengali) population.

Results: We obtained moderate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.6) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.64, < 0.001). Positive correlations were found between RMET-R and Wechsler picture arrangement ( = 0.60, < 0.001), picture completion ( = 0.54, < 0.001), and comprehension subtests ( = 0.48, < 0.001). Patients with SCZ ( = 49.7, standard deviation [SD] = 16.5) scored significantly lower than HCs ( = 68.9, SD = 13.8) ( = 0.008; Cohen's d = 1.3) on the RMET-R. Thus this tool could discriminate patients who are reported to have Theory of Mind deficits from healthy controls.

Conclusion: The Bengali version of the RMET-R is a reliable and valid tool for assessing first-order ToM insofar as the original RMET-R measures this construct.

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