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Background: Despite availability of validated screening tests for mood disorders, busy general practitioners (GPs) often lack the time to use them routinely. This study aimed to develop a simplified clinical predictive score to help screen for presence of current mood disorder in low-income primary care settings. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 197 patients seen at 10 primary care centers in Santiago, Chile completed self-administered screening tools for mood disorders: the Patient Health questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). To determine participants’ current-point mood disorder status, trained clinicians applied a gold-standard diagnostic interview (SCID-I). A simplified clinical predictive model (CM) was developed based on clinical features and selected questions from the screening tools. Using CM, a clinical predictive score (PS) was developed. Full PHQ-9 and GP assessment were compared with PS. Results: Using multivariate logistic regression, clinical and demographic variables predictive of current mood disorder were identified for a simplified 8-point predictive score (PS). PS had better discrimination than GP assessment (auROC-statistic ¼0.80 [95% CI 0.72, 0.85] vs. 0.58 [95% CI 0.52, 0.62] p-value o0.0001), but not as good as the full PHQ-9 (0.89 [95% CI 0.85, 0.93], p-value¼0.03). Compared with GP assessment, PS increased sensitivity by 50% at a fixed specificity of 90%. Administered in a typical primary care clinical population, it correctly predicted almost 80% of cases. Limitations: Further research must verify external validity of the PS. Conclusion: An easily administered clinical predictive score determined, with reasonable accuracy, the current risk of mood disorders in low-income primary care settings.

Objective To assess the sensitivity and specificity of two self-report instruments for detection of bipolarity in a sample of Argentinean patients. Method Spanish versions of the MDQ and the BSDS were administered over four months at 11 sites in Argentina. Diagnoses were made using DSM-IV criteria and the MINI. The study sample consisted of patients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder (BD) Types I, II, or NOS. BDNOS diagnoses were made using extended guidelines for bipolar spectrum symptoms. Unipolar patients were used as a control group. Of 493 patients screened, 354 completed evaluation by MDQ and MINI, and 363 by BSDS and MINI. Results Specificity of MDQ was 0.97 and BSDS was 0.81. MDQ sensitivity was 0.70 for bipolar type I (BD-I), 0.52 for bipolar II (BD-II) and 0.31 for bipolar not otherwise specified (BDNOS). BSDS sensitivities were 0.75, 0.70 and 0.51 respectively. Limitations This study was performed in specialized outpatient settings and thus its results are not necessarily representative for other clinical settings. There was not a systematic evaluation of comorbid psychiatric disease or test–retest reliability. Conclusion The local versions of the MDQ and the BSDS showed a sensitivity and specificity comparable to previous research. Our results indicate that in this sample, MDQ was more specific for BD and BSDS was more sensitive to detect BD-II and NOS. Since BD-I is more readily recognized than bipolar spectrum disorders, enhanced sensitivity of BSDS for soft bipolarity may be an advantage.

Background Mixed depression reflects the occurrence of a major depressive episode with subsyndromal manic symptoms. Not recognized in DSM-IV, it is included in the proposed changes for DSM-5. Observational and cross-sectional studies have suggested that mixed depression is present in up to one-half of major depressive episodes, whether in MDD or bipolar disorder. Based on observational studies, antidepressants appear to be less effective, and neuroleptics more effective, in mixed than pure depression (major depressive episodes with no manic symptoms). In this report, we examine the specific manic symptoms that are most present in mixed depression, especially as they correlate with prospectively assessed treatment response. Methods In 72 patients treated in a randomized clinical trial (ziprasidone versus placebo), we assessed the phenomenology of manic symptom type at study entry and their influence as predictors of treatment response. Results The most common symptom presentation was a clinical triad of flight of ideas (60%), distractibility (58%), and irritable mood (55%). Irritable mood was the major predictor of treatment response. DSM-based diagnostic distinctions between MDD and bipolar disorder (type II) did not predict treatment response. Conclusion In this prospective study, mixed depression seems to be most commonly associated with irritable mood, flight of ideas, and distractibility, with irritability being an important predictor of treatment outcome with neuroleptic agents. If these data are correct, in the presence of mixed depression, the DSM-based dichotomy between MDD and bipolar disorder does not appearto influence treatment response.

The use of antidepressants in rapid-cycling bipolar disorder has been controversial. We report the first randomized clinical trial with modern antidepressants on this topic.As part of the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) study, we analyzed, as an a priori secondary outcome, rapid cycling as a predictor of response in 68 patients randomized to continue vs. discontinue antidepressant treatment, after initial response for an acute major depressive episode. Outcomes assessed were percent time well and total number of episodes. All patients received standard mood stabilizers.In those continued on antidepressants (AD), rapid cycling (RC) subjects experienced 268% (3.14/1.17) more total mood episodes/year, and 293% (1.29/0.44) more depressive episodes/year, compared with non-rapid cycling (NRC) subjects (mean difference in depressive episodes per year RC vs. NRC was 0.85 ± 0.37 (SE), df = 28, p = 0.03). In the AD continuation group, RC patients also had 28.8% less time in remission than NRC patients (95% confidence intervals (9.9%, 46.5%), p = 0.004). No such differences between RC and NRC subjects were seen in the AD discontinuation group (Table 1). Analyses within the rapid-cycling subgroup alone were consistent with the above comparisons between RC and NRC subjects, stratified by maintenance antidepressant treatment, though limited by sample size.In an a priori analysis, despite preselection for good antidepressant response and concurrent mood stabilizer treatment, antidepressant continuation in rapid-cycling was associated with worsened maintenance outcomes, especially for depressive morbidity, vs. antidepressant discontinuation.

Some see current views of mental illness, such as depression, as merely contemporary social constructions, with madness seen as a modernist break from medieval and ancient concepts. In contrast to these assumptions, here we describe one of the earliest texts on melancholia and mania, by Ibn Imran, an Arab physician of the 10th century.

Background We sought to examine correlations between clinical validators and temperaments in clinical practice. Methods We provided the self-report TEMPS-A (50 item long) to 123 consecutive patients seen in the Mood Disorders Program of Tufts Medical Center. Temperament was assessed as cyclothymia, dysthymia, irritable or hyperthymia. Cut-offs were tested using (50%) and (75%) thresholds of affirmative responses, as well as highest percent for dominant temperament. We reported no dominant temperament at 75% cut-off . Multivariate regression modeling was conducted to assess confounding bias. Results Using clinical and demographic validators, cyclothymia was the most strongly validated temperament, followed by dysthymia and hyperthymia. Irritable temperament did not appear to be valid in this sample. A 75% item endorsement cut-off appeared to identify clinically important temperaments in slightly less than half of this sample. Those without any temperament at 75% cut-off had better prognostic features. 50% cut-off was highly nonspecific, and poorly correlated with diagnostic validators. Conclusions Affective temperaments correlate with clinical validators, most robustly for cyclothymia. 75% cut-off on the TEMPS may provide a useful categorical definition of abnormal affective temperaments in mood disorders. With that definition, slightly less than one-half of patients with mood disorders have affective temperaments. Those without abnormal affective temperaments have better prognostic features.