170 hospitalised patients (96 schizophrenic, 71 depressive, and 3 manic) were examined during the German version of the CPRS. Based on factor analytical results four subscales ('manic syndrome', 'schizophrenic syndrome', 'depressive syndrome', and 'side-effects') and two second-order scales ('manic-depressive syndrome' and 'schizophrenic syndrome') were constructed. The first three subscales show a good reliability. The fourth subscale ('side-effects') has an insufficient internal consistency, mainly due to the small number of items (6). The two subscales 'schizophrenic syndrome' and 'depressive syndrome' and the two second-order scales can differentiate very well between schizophrenic and depressive syndromes. The validity of the first and fourth subscale could not be examined in this study.