Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Version of the Rapid Mood Screener for Bipolar Disorder (RMS-T): A Validity...

The Rapid Mood Screener (RMS) is a reliable and validated brief, point-of-care, patient-administered screening tool for bipolar disorders. Herein we aim to evaluate the reliability and validity of the RMS in Turkish adults with bipolar I disorder (BD).

Forward and backward translation was conducted for the English version of the RMS to the Turkish version of RMS (RMS-T). We conducted a ROC analysis for both the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) and RMS-T in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) or BD. The maximum sensitivity and specificity were also calculated.

We recruited 128 participants (n = 63 BD-I, n = 65 MDD). Participants who responded 4 or more "yes" out of six items on the RMS-T were adjudicated as a positive screen for BD-I. The sensitivity of the RMS-T was 79.4% and the specificity was 84.6%. The RMS-T was determined to be of higher discriminative power in discriminating BD relative to the MDQ (AUC = 0.865, p < 0.001).

The RMS-T is a valid and easy-to-use self-administer tool for the identification of BD-I in individuals with depression. The RMS has many advantages over the MDQ in clinical settings by having fewer items, a simpler scoring system, and shorter completion time. Early screening and detection of BD is critical for appropriate treatment selection to achieve the goal of overall improving health outcomes.