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Abstract:
Background: The Bipolar Depression Rating Scale is an instrument to measure depression severity in patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This study has reevaluated the psychometric values of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale through assessing an Iranian sample of patients with bipolar depression.
Methods: A total of 60 patients (36 males and 24 females) with bipolar depression referred to four medical centers in Tehran, Iran were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV axis I Disorders, Young Mania Rating Scale, center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale. Internal consistency and inter-rater reliability of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale, and Pearson's correlation coefficient between the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale and Young Mania Rating Scale/Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were calculated.
Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.81. The Pearson's correlation coefficients of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale and Young Mania Rating Scale were 0.73 and -0.82, respectively. The correlation coefficients between the two raters for the total score of the Bipolar Depression Rating Scale according to the Pearson's correlation and intraclass correlation tests were 0.83 and 0.89, respectively.
Conclusion: The Bipolar Depression Rating Scale is a reliable and valid instrument to use in studies on Iranian clinical patients with bipolar depression.
Keywords: Bipolar disorder - bipolar depression - Bipolar Depression Rating Scale - reliability - validity
Introduction
The depressive picture is the common clinical manifestation of two major mood disorders-major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). It is usually difficult to diagnose whether a cross-sectional depressive picture is related to MDD or BD. Given that this differentiation is of clinical significance regarding different therapeutic options for each disorder, detecting the variation of the major depressive episode (MDE) between MDD and BD could be necessary.
There are some differences between BD and MDD for the MDE characteristics. Some of these characteristics which are seen more in bipolar depression are as follows: depression with few manic symptoms (depressive mixed state), depression with a family history of BD,1 depression with a history of treatment- associated hypomania,2,3 early-onset depression, 4,5 highly-recurrent depression,5,6 brief depressive episodes,1,7 depression with cyclothymic8,9 or hyperthymic temperament,10 atypical depression,5,11 depression with psychomotor retardation,11,12 psychotic depression,11,13 treatment-resistant depression, 5,13...