Validation of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire for bipolar disorders in adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
The study was designed to determine the validity of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire-Adolescent Version (MDQ-A) as a screening instrument for bipolar disorders (I, II, not otherwise specified, and cyclothymia) in an adolescent outpatient psychiatric population.


METHODS
104 adolescents and their parents completed the MDQ-A. Three versions of the MDQ-A were compared: (1) self report of symptoms by adolescent, (2) attributional report-how the adolescent believed teachers or friends would report his/her symptoms, and (3) parent report of adolescent's symptoms. DSM-IV diagnosis was made based upon the clinician-administered Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL), a semistructured diagnostic interview. MDQ-A items were summed, yielding a score for each adolescent ranging from 0 to 13 on each of the 3 MDQ-A versions. Each possible scoring threshold, in combination with co-occurrence of symptoms and behaviors and with moderate to serious problems caused by symptoms, was crossed with the results of the K-SADS-PL diagnostic interview to assess sensitivity and specificity. The study was conducted from April 2002 to September 2003.


RESULTS
A score of 5 or more items on the parent version yielded a sensitivity of 0.72 and specificity of 0.81, which were superior to self and attributional versions.


CONCLUSIONS
The MDQ-A completed by parents about their adolescents' symptoms may be a useful screening instrument for bipolar disorders in an adolescent psychiatric outpatient population.
Wagner
Karen Dineen
KD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555-0188, USA. kwagner@utmb.edu
Hirschfeld
Robert M A
RM
Emslie
Graham J
GJ
Findling
Robert L
RL
Gracious
Barbara L
BL
Reed
Michael L
ML
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003527:Cyclothymic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires