Validity of the mood disorder questionnaire: a general population study.
OBJECTIVE
This study tested the validity in the adult general population of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, a screening instrument for bipolar I and II disorders. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire has been validated in a psychiatric outpatient study group.


METHODS
A total of 711 subjects (stratified by Mood Disorder Questionnaire score) were randomly selected from a group of 85,358 adult respondents in a nationwide epidemiological general population sample that was balanced for key demographic variables. Of these, 695 subjects received a telephone interview involving an abbreviated version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV.


RESULTS
A sensitivity of 0.281 and a specificity of 0.972 were obtained for the Mood Disorder Questionnaire.


CONCLUSIONS
The Mood Disorder Questionnaire is a useful screening instrument for bipolar I and II disorders in the community. The operating characteristics of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire in the general population differ substantially from its characteristics in outpatient psychiatric settings.
Hirschfeld
Robert M A
RM
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, 1.302 Rebecca Sealy, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555-0188, USA. rohirsch@utmb.edu
Holzer
Charles
C
Calabrese
Joseph R
JR
Weissman
Myrna
M
Reed
Michael
M
Davies
Marilyn
M
Frye
Mark A
MA
Keck
Paul
P
McElroy
Susan
S
Lewis
Lydia
L
Tierce
Jonathan
J
Wagner
Karen D
KD
Hazard
Elizabeth
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology