Translation and adaptation of the Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Scale-Retrospective – Patient Version to Brazilian Portuguese

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and often severe mental disease, associated with a significant burden in affected individuals. The characterization of a premorbid (prodromal) pe-riod and possible development of preventive interventions are recent advances in this field. Attempts to characterize high-risk stages in BD, identifying symptoms prior to the emergence of a first manic/hypomanic episode, have been limited by a lack of standardized criteria and instruments for assessment. The Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Scale-Retrospective (BPSS-R), de-veloped by Correll and collaborators, retrospectively evaluates symptoms that occur prior to a first full mood episode in indivi-duals with BD. Objective: To describe the translation and adaptation process of the BPSS-R to Brazilian Portuguese. Method: Translation was conducted as follows: 1) translation of the scale from English to Brazilian Portuguese by authors who have Portuguese as their first language; 2) merging of the two versions by a committee of specialists; 3) back-translation to English by a translator who is an English native speaker; 4) cor-rection of the new version in English by the author of the original scale; 5) finalization of the new version in Brazilian Portuguese. Results: All the steps of the translation process were success-fully accomplished, resulting in a final version of the instrument. Conclusions: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the BPSS-R is a potentially useful instrument to investigate prodromal period of BD in Brazil