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

Abstract

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 POINTS

• The 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.

Keywords:

• Bipolar depression rating scale
• psychometric properties
• bipolar depression
• mixed symptoms
• neuroscience
• mental disorders

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBUMS), Tehran, Iran for their support, cooperation, and assistance throughout the period of study. MB is supported by a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship (1059660 and 1156072).

Author contributions

All authors contributed substantively to the preparation of the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research has been supported by the Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBUMS) and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.