Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Comparison of Commonly Used Screening Tools for Bipolar Disorders

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) is a significant clinical challenge.
• Current screening tools for BD are brief and cost-effective but their long-term reliability and influencing factors are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the cross-sectional and longitudinal reliability and validity of two common BD screening tools: the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) and the Hypomania Symptom Checklist-32 (HCL-32).
• To investigate associations between screening tool responses, current mood states, and participant characteristics.

Main Methods:

• 331 adult patients diagnosed with BD completed the MDQ and HCL-32, along with mood assessments, at baseline and three months later.
• Statistical analyses examined internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and correlations with clinical and demographic factors.

Main Results:

• The MDQ exhibited low internal consistency and test-retest reliability (α=0.531-0.647, r_s=0.582).
• The HCL-32 showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability (α=0.815, r_s=0.725).
• Both tools correlated with mania symptoms and certain demographic factors; mood state was the only significant change over time.

Conclusions:

• The HCL-32 appears to be a more reliable screening tool for bipolar disorder compared to the MDQ.
• Potential bias in the study results may exist due to the inclusion criteria requiring participants to exceed an MDQ threshold at baseline.