Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (C-BSDS) in a Chinese population to serve as an aid to clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorders.


BACKGROUND
Bipolar spectrum disorders are often misdiagnosed because of the wide range of symptoms seen in patients. The consequences of delayed diagnoses or misdiagnoses can be devastating.


METHODS
A cross-sectional research design.


METHODS
Two hundred patients with affective disorders from a psychiatric outpatient clinic in Taiwan were enrolled. Internal consistency reliability and two-week test-retest reliability were performed to evaluate the reliability of the C-BSDS. Expert content validity and factor analysis were used for testing construct validity. To evaluate sensitivity and specificity, the Chinese version of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used as the gold standard for diagnosis.


RESULTS
The internal consistency coefficient measured by intra-class correlation (ICC) was 0.81, the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.85 and the expert validity was 0.85. For construct validity, 'irritable and hyper-energetic factors' and 'depressed and lack of energy factors' were extracted by factor analysis. These two factors reflected the structure of the original scale and accounted for 33.27% of the variance. The optimal cut-off was 12, which yielded a sensitivity of 74 and a specificity of 0.97 for detecting bipolar disorder and for bipolar II disorder these were 0.79 and 0.68, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The C-BSDS showed good reliability and validity, and the results were consistent with the English version of the BSDS. Therefore, the C-BSDS is an effective tool for evaluation of a Chinese population.


CONCLUSIONS
The BSDS can further increase the detection rate of bipolar disorders, especially bipolar II disorder, with satisfactory sensitivity and specificity. It can effectively assist with clinical screening of patients for bipolar spectrum disorders.
Chu
Hsin
H
Department of Neurology, Graduate Institute of Aerospace Medicine, School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taiwan.
Lin
Chuan-Ju
CJ
Chiang
Kai-Jo
KJ
Chen
Chiung-Hua
CH
Lu
Ru-Band
RB
Chou
Kuei-Ru
KR
D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013624:Taiwan