[Hypomania Check List (HCL-32)--hypomania symptoms questionnaire: description and application]

In current diagnostic classifications such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), unipolar and bipolar mood disorders are mentioned, where the differentiating factor is occurrence of mania or hypomania. In DSM-IV, bipolar mood disorder type I (bipolar I), with the episodes of mania, and bipolar mood disorder type II (bipolar II) with hypomania, have been separated. Clinical and epidemiological studies performed in recent decades using more sensitive measures of the assessment of hypomania suggest a marked prevalence of bipolar disorders of not-bipolar I type, amounting to about 3-5% of population. In 2005, Angst and collaborators introduced the Hypomania Check List-32 scale (HCL-32) aimed at a better identification of the occurrence of hypomania symptoms in patients with affective disorders. The studies carried out in many countries have demonstrated a significant sensitivity and specificity of the scale and its usefulness for the assessment of bipolar affective disorders. In the present paper, the Polish version of HCL-32 scale is presented. This version has been already employed in the all-country Polish project TRES-DEP where the features of bipolarity were assessed in depressive patients in whom treatment with antidepressant drugs was unsuccessful.