A new, female-specific irritability rating scale.
OBJECTIVE
Irritability is a prominent symptom in the spectrum of female-specific mood disorders, and in some women, irritability is serious enough to disrupt their lives and warrant treatment. The objective of this research was to develop a new, female-specific state measure of irritability.


METHODS
We constructed self-rating and observer rating scales using items derived from spontaneous descriptions of irritability by women with mood disturbances related to the menstrual cycle, childbearing or menopause. Following a pretest, the scales were shortened to the core items of irritability (annoyance, anger, tension, hostility, sensitivity to noise and touch) and tested on a new cohort of patients.


RESULTS
The 14-item Self-Rating Scale and the 5-item Observer Rating Scale showed evidence for internal consistency (Self-Rating: n = 36 patients, Cronbach's alpha = 0.9257, mean interitem correlation = 0.4690; Observer Rating: Cronbach's alpha = 0.7418, mean interitem correlation = 0.3616), Self-Rating test-retest reliability (n = 29 patients, r(s) = 0.704, p = 0.01) and interrater reliability (n = 20 patients; tau(b) = 1.000, p = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
This new, female-specific scale for rating irritability has the potential to further the evaluation of this prominent symptom cluster and increase specificity in clinical assessments of emotional disturbances related to reproductive cyclicity in women.
Born
Leslie
L
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Koren
Gideon
G
Lin
Elizabeth
E
Steiner
Meir
M
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D047648:Perimenopause / Q000523:psychology; D010500:Perinatology; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000523:psychology; D011293:Premenstrual Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires