Meng Fang1, Yuan-Yuan Wang2, Yuan Feng1, Gabor S Ungvari3, Chee H Ng4, Gang Wang5, Yu-Tao Xiang6, Jules Angst7. 1. The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders Beijing Anding Hospital & the Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, School of Mental Health, Beijing, China. 2. Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom. 3. The University of Notre Dame Australia, Perth, Australia; Division of Psychiatry, University of Western Australia Medical School, Perth, Australia. 4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 5. The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders Beijing Anding Hospital & the Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, School of Mental Health, Beijing, China. Electronic address: gangwangdoc@gmail.com. 6. Unit of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China. Electronic address: xyutly@gmail.com. 7. Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Lenggstrasse 31, P.O. Box 1931, Zurich 8032, Switzerland.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) is common in clinical practice, leading to inappropriate treatment and detrimental consequences. The 33-item Hypomania Checklist (HCL-33) is a newly developed screening instrument for hypomanic symptoms in patients with BD. The 33-item Hypomania Checklist-external assessment (HCL-33-EA) is a version of the HCL-33 for carers of patients with mood disorders. In this study, the psychometric properties of the HCL-33-EA in a Chinese population were explored. METHOD: A total of 182 inpatients and 240 carers were recruited in this study. Patients were diagnosed with bipolar depression or major depressive disorder (MDD) according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The patients completed the HCL-33, while their carers filled out the HCL-33-EA. RESULTS: The HCL-33-EA showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.876) with two-factorial dimensions. Paired samples t-test revealed that the mean score of the HCL-33-EA was significantly lower than that of the HCL-33 (t = 10.1, p < 0.001). Spearman's rho showed that the two instruments were significantly and positively correlated (r = 0.46, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The HCL-33-EA has acceptable psychometric properties and could be an effective screening tool for patients' carers, enabling identification of the symptoms of hypomania.
BACKGROUND: Misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) is common in clinical practice, leading to inappropriate treatment and detrimental consequences. The 33-item Hypomania Checklist (HCL-33) is a newly developed screening instrument for hypomanic symptoms in patients with BD. The 33-item Hypomania Checklist-external assessment (HCL-33-EA) is a version of the HCL-33 for carers of patients with mood disorders. In this study, the psychometric properties of the HCL-33-EA in a Chinese population were explored. METHOD: A total of 182 inpatients and 240 carers were recruited in this study. Patients were diagnosed with bipolar depression or major depressive disorder (MDD) according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The patients completed the HCL-33, while their carers filled out the HCL-33-EA. RESULTS: The HCL-33-EA showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.876) with two-factorial dimensions. Paired samples t-test revealed that the mean score of the HCL-33-EA was significantly lower than that of the HCL-33 (t = 10.1, p < 0.001). Spearman's rho showed that the two instruments were significantly and positively correlated (r = 0.46, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The HCL-33-EA has acceptable psychometric properties and could be an effective screening tool for patients' carers, enabling identification of the symptoms of hypomania.