Feasibility of the Korean version of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale in Adolescents with Early-Onset Bipolar Disorder

Confirmatory evaluation of the bipolar depression rating scale (BDRS) in a large sample of female patients with bipolar depression

OBJECTIVE

The Bipolar Depression Rating Scale (BDRS) is a structured rating scale designed to assess depressive and mixed symptoms in bipolar disorder (BD). Previous studies evaluating the scale have been performed on small samples or on patients in a depressive phase, but not on patients in a mixed or manic phase. This study evaluated the Persian version of the BDRS regarding its factor structure, reliability, and validity in a large sample of Iranian women with BD in a depressive or mixed/manic phase.

METHODS

Three-hundred and one female BD inpatients completed the BDRS, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS).

RESULTS

The BDRS demonstrated a three-factor structure with good reliability. The BDRS and its psychological and somatic symptom clusters had stronger correlations with other measures of depressive symptoms than a measure of mania. The BDRS mixed symptom cluster also had a stronger correlation with a measure of mania than other measures of depression, supporting the scales' convergent and discriminant validity.

CONCLUSIONS

The BDRS demonstrated psychometric validity in assessing depressive and mixed symptoms in Iranian women with BD in a depressive or mixed/manic phase.KEY POINTSThe Bipolar Depression Rating Scale (BDRS) was validated in Iranian women with BD.The BDRS showed a three-factor structure, similar to the original validation.The BDRS had good reliability based on Omega and test-retest coefficients.The findings provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the BDRS.

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale for Bipolar Disorder

INTRODUCTION

Unlike unipolar depression, depressive episode of bipolar disorder is often associated with clinical characteristics, such as atypical and mixed symptoms. However, there are currently no valid and reliable specific tools available to assess the specific psychiatric symptomatology of depressive episode of bipolar disorder in China. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale (BDRS) in Chinese patients with bipolar disorder.

METHODS

The sample of this study included 111 patients with bipolar disorder (30 male, 81 female). All participants were interviewed with the Chinese version of the BDRS (BDRS-C), the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). A psychometric analysis of the BDRS was conducted.

RESULTS

The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the BDRS-C reached a value of 0.869. The BDRS-C score and scores for the HAMD-17 (r = 0.819, p < 0.01), the MADRS (r = 0.882, p < 0.01) and the YMRS (r = 0.355, p < 0.01) exhibited significant positive correlations. Close correlations were observed between the mixed subscale score of the BDRS-C and the YMRS score (r = 0.784, p < 0.01). Exploratory factor analysis resulted in three factors: a primary depressive symptoms cluster, a secondary depressive symptoms cluster, and a mixed symptoms cluster.

CONCLUSION

The Chinese version of the BDRS has satisfactory psychometric properties. This is a valid and reliable instrument to assess depressive symptomatology in patients with bipolar disorder.