title: The hypomanic personality scale: a measure of personality and/or bipolar symptoms?
abstract: The Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) was designed to measure a predispositional personality style to bipolar disorder. Its properties have largely been assessed in non-clinical samples. We undertook a number of analyses to determine if it is likely to be a measure of actual personality style or is confounded by items capturing hypomanic/manic mood symptoms. A total of 112 bipolar and 164 unipolar patients completed the measure. Several principal components analyses were undertaken and associations were examined between HPS items and scores on a measure designed to identify bipolar disorder--the Mood Swings Questionnaire (MSQ). Principal components analyses generated a similar set of four factors in both the unipolar and bipolar sample sub-sets and congruent with previous analyses undertaken in non-clinical samples, suggesting identification of normative dimensions that underpin hypomanic and manic mood states. A number of HPS items correlated highly with the MSQ. Results suggest that HPS is unlikely to simply be a measure of personality style and appears strongly confounded by hypomanic/manic mood symptoms. The measure may therefore--in its current form--be inappropriate for at-risk research seeking to determine the capacity of personality style to predict onset of a bipolar disorder.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia; Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia. Electronic address: g.parker@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia; Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia; Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.
authors.forename: Stacey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McCraw
authors.affiliation: Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010556:Personality Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Bipolar disorder; Hypomanic; Personality