Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ)

The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (Hirschfeld et al., 2000) screens for bipolar spectrum disorder with 13 yes/no symptom items — answered about any lifetime period of not being one's usual self — plus two follow-up questions on co-occurrence and functional impact.

A positive screen requires all three published criteria at once: seven or more symptom items endorsed, the symptoms co-occurring in the same period, and at least moderate impairment. This three-criterion rule is applied exactly as published; meeting it indicates that bipolar-spectrum evaluation is warranted, not that a diagnosis is established.

The notes below are reproduced from the platform's psychometrics register for this instrument — the same source-cited reliability, validity, and norms text that accompanies its downloadable report.

Adequate internal consistency for the 13 symptom items (alpha around 0.90) (Hirschfeld et al., 2000).

In the original validation the full positive-screen algorithm achieved sensitivity 0.73 and specificity 0.90 in a psychiatric sample (Hirschfeld et al., 2000); sensitivity is lower in general and community samples.

Developed in US outpatient psychiatric clinics; the instrument performs best in clinical populations.

“you felt so good or so hyper that other people thought you were not your normal self, or you were so hyper that you got into trouble?”

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scored by the instrument's published three-criterion screening algorithm (symptom count, co-occurrence, and impairment).

Hirschfeld, R. M. A., Williams, J. B. W., Spitzer, R. L., et al. (2000). Development and validation of a screening instrument for bipolar spectrum disorder: the Mood Disorder Questionnaire. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(11), 1873–1875.

Scoring. A positive screen requires 7 or more symptom items endorsed, co-occurrence during the same period, and at least moderate functional impairment (Hirschfeld et al., 2000).

Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) © 2000 by Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, MD. Reproduced for clinical and research use with attribution.