Discussion It was found that clinical trials in schizophrenia are likely to utilize the PANSS for psychopathology as well as the set of AIMS, BARS and SAS for EPS assessment. Overall frequency in the assessment scales for schizophrenia in an effort to evaluate multiple domains within the illness appeared to be similar across years, except for more recent attention on cognition, functioning and subjective perspectives. The PANSS together with the set of AIMS, BARS and SAS may be regarded as ‘the standard’ in clinical trials for schizophrenia. This ‘standard’ set of assessment scales is expected to take about 60 minutes (30–40/5–10/10/10 minutes for the PANSS/AIMS/BARS/SAS, respectively).2 Such a time requirement obviously represents an obstacle for real-world practice.   Studies have utilized different scales for their different interests and we can not be entirely certain about which scales are adequate in a specific study. It is important to acknowledge that all assessment scales do h