Method:

The questionnaire has been translated to other languages and has been used in non-clinical settings, with very good standards of performance. Since there is not a Spanish version of it, we decided to translate this instrument and to design a trial for the following purposes: 1) to obtain a validated and understandable Spanish version of the questionnaire. 2) To determine its sensibility and specificity in a sample of patients with affective disorders. 3) To identify its optimal cutoff score for screening purposes. The first step in our study consisted in the development of a translated version of the instrument. For that purpose a translation- retranslation procedure was utilized, in which four clinical psychiatrists with experience in treating bipolar patients made each one a separate translation. Then, all the versions were discussed until a consensus was reached in a final version. This version was retranslated to English and, after making some adjustments, the final version in Spanish was concluded.

The study aimed to determine the clinimetric parameters of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire in its Spanish version, was conducted at the outpatient affective disorders clinic in the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente, in México City. Patients with an age of 18 years and over who looked for psychiatric consultation, due to the presence of affective disorder were invited to participate. After explaining the procedure and the purposes of the study, all those who accepted to participate, signed 51 an informed consent document. This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of our institution. All patients completed the Mood Disorder Questionnaire. Two experienced clinical psychiatrists, blind to the questionnaire results, applied the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) to obtain the specific affective diagnosis in all the patients.

Clinical and demographic data, as well as results from the clinical interview and questionnaire’s scores, were obtained and then analyzed. Sensitivity and specificity for each Mood Disorder Questionnaire score, were plotted by using results from the SCID interview as a standard. Sensitivity (percent of criterion standard diagnosis correctly diagnosed by the questionnaire) and specificity (percent of criterion standard noncases correctly identified as noncases by the questionnaire) were obtained by using different symptoms, threshold that ranged from 5 to 10 points in order to determine the optimal screen threshold.

Results:

A total of 100 patients were included in the study. Mean age for the complete group was 35.3 years and 64% were female. According to the SCID results, 49 patients had a diagnosis within the bipolar spectrum disorder and 51 had a unipolar affective diagnosis. Each group included patients with both first and recurrent episodes, and with and without comorbidities. The questionnaire was completed by the total sample of patients covering the total range of answer’s possibilities, from non-positive responses (1% of the sample) to 13 positive responses (15% of the sample). Mean score (± SD) was 8.06 (3.5) with a significant difference between patients in the bipolar group (10.3 ± 2.7) and patients in the unipolar group (5.8 ± 2.7); t = -8.2, 98 gl, p<0.001. Using different cutoff scores sensitivity and specificity were calculated, observing that with a 10 point cutoff score, equilibrated sensitivity (0.71) and specificity (0.92) levels were obtained.

Conclusions:

The study was aimed to obtain an adequate translated version into Spanish of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, and to determine its sensitivity and specificity, according to an optimal cutoff score, for correctly detecting bipolarity from a sample of affective disorder patients. With a reliable procedure of translation process, we obtained a satisfactory, understandable and easy to use version for patients. Similar to other reports, a structured clinical interview was utilized to obtain the patients diagnoses. After evaluating with different cutoff scores, we found that a score of 10, gives an adequate distribution for levels of sensitivity and specificity. However, lower scores (between 7 and 9), also give adequate levels of sensitivity and specificity. It is important to consider, that our study was done in a very specific sample of patients who had only affective disorders. With these type patients it is necessary to raise the bar sufficiently to obtain adequate results. In other studies that included non-affective patients the questionnaire worked well with lower cutoff points.

The operating characteristics of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire in its Spanish version are sufficiently good to consider its application as a reliable screening instrument for detecting bipolar spectrum disorders at least, in an affective disorders clinical setting. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether the instrument would be useful in other psychiatric settings as well as in community or primary care samples, and also to determine the best cutoff point depending in the characteristics of the population in which it is being used.

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