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.
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.
KEY POINTS
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).