Screening for bipolar disorders in patients with alcohol or substance use disorders:Performance of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire

Background: Screening properties of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) to detect bipolar disorder (BD) in patients with substance use disorders are unknown.Methods: 403 treatment seeking patients with a substance use disorder completed the MDQ and subsequently 111 MDQ positives and 59 MDQ negatives were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV to diagnose BD. In addition, given the overlap with BD symptoms, the presence of borderline personality disorder (BPD), antisocial personality disorder (APD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and the. Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality.Results: Of the 170 patients with a SCID interview, 35 patients (20.6%) met criteria for a lifetime diagnosis of BD. Twenty-three patients (62.8%) with BD had a positive MDQ score and 47 of the 135 patients (34.8%) without BD had a negative MDQ score resulting in a weighted sensitivity of .43, a weighted specificity of .57, a positive predictive value of .21, a negative predictive value (NPV) of .80 and an area under the curve of .50. The area under the curve of the MDQ to detect BPD, APD, ADHD and any externalizing disorder ranged from .55 (APD) to .63 (ADHD).Conclusions: The MDQ is not a suitable screening instrument for the detection of BD or other externalizing disorders but it could be used for ruling out the presence of BD in treatment seeking substance use disorder patients. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.