Mood Disorders Questionnaire questioned

The Mood Disorders Questionnaire (MDQ), widely promoted in Australia and elsewhere as a simple screening tool for bipolar disorder, is insufficiently sensitive and may have limited clinical utility, a new report has claimed. American researchers administered the MDQ to 534 psychiatric outpatients and compared the scores with results from a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. There were about 10% diagnosed with bipolar disorder. “The sensitivity of the scale was only 63.5% for the entire group of bipolar patients,” they said. The specificity was about 85%. If the scoring system was adjusted to drop the requirement for moderate or severe impairment from symptoms, the sensitivity increased by about 10% but there was a corresponding drop in specificity. “These results raise questions regarding the MDQ’s utility in routine clinical practice,” they concluded. The positive predictive value was a modest 34%, so a competent psychiatric diagnostic evaluation was still necessary. “The question could, and should, be asked: why is such a screening test needed by mental health clinicians?” they said. “There are no special questions on the MDQ that a competent clinician should be unfamiliar with.” The MDQ is included on the websites of several Australian mental health advocacy organisations, for self-administration by people seeking further information about bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disorders 2009; 11: 759-765....