The authors of the PANSS choose Mapi Research Trust as their exclusive licensing partner

On March 3rd, 2025, the authors of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and their estates resumed ownership of the copyright of the PANSS, SCI-PANSS, the PANSS Technical Manual, and the PANSS Rating and Profile Form. Following this decision, they appointed Mapi Research Trust as their exclusive licensing and distribution partner.

About the PANSS

Since its development in the early 1980s, the PANSS has been a critical tool for psychiatry research, primarily for evaluation of symptom severity in schizophrenia and related mental and behavioral disorders, including bipolar disorder, affective psychoses, drug-induced psychoses, Alzheimer's disease, anorexia nervosa, and several others. 
The PANSS was initially created by Dr. Stanley Kay, Dr. Abraham Fiszbein, and Dr. Lewis Opler. Dr. Jean-Pierre Lindenmayer joined the original PANSS developers to collaborate on development of the Structured Clinical Interview for the PANSS (SCI-PANSS). Subsequently, Dr. Paul Michael Ramirez and Dr. Lewis Opler co-authored the Informant Questionnaire for the PANSS (IQ-PANSS). In the early 2000s, the PANSS Technical Manual, which details the scale’s psychometric properties and includes the Rating & Profile Form, was revised with contributions from Dr. Leonard White and Dr. Mark Opler.

Voices behind the PANSS: Developer and distributor perspectives

"On behalf of the original authors and their families," said Dr. Mark Opler, Executive Director for the New York City-based PANSS Institute, "we are delighted that going forward, distribution of the PANSS will be managed exclusively by MAPI Research Trust (MRT). We believe MRT to be an exceptional partner whose platform will not only help facilitate licensing for commercial use, but also for academic, public health, and non-profit applications. Through our new partnership with MRT, we look forward to improving access to the scale for all stakeholders, to introducing new components and updates, and to making interrater reliability training freely accessible to any qualified individual, anywhere in the world."
 

“Forty years after its initial development, the PANSS remains the gold-standard for the assessment of patients with schizophrenia and related disorders. It has helped researchers all other the world to better understand and treat this complex pathology. Mapi Research Trust is therefore very proud to partner with the authors and their estate for the operational management of the PANSS and its derivatives.”, said Brittany Manocchio, Account Manager at MRT.