psychometric properties of the mood disorder questionnaire in isfahan, iran

aim and background: mood disorders are a significant group of psychiatric disorders. bipolar spectrum disorders are mood disorders that usually remain unrecognized and subsequently undertreated. one of the most useful screening instruments for underdiagnosed bipolar disorders is the mood disorder questionnaire (mdq). this paper presented the persian version and psychometric properties of mdq for patients with mood disorder in isfahan, iran. methods and materials: a total number of 62 patients with mood disorders were selected using convenience sampling. the subjects completed the mdq before being interviewed using the composite international diagnostic interview. the control group was selected according to psychiatric interviews and the general health questionnaire. a demographic questionnaire and the mdq were administered to both groups. data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, factor and differentiation analyses, and cronbach’s alpha and spearman correlation coefficient tests in spss 13 . findings: the reliability of the whole questionnaire was α = 0.81. each question showed an internal positive consistency with the whole questionnaire (0.18-0.64). the cut-off point was determined to be 8.5 based on the differentiation analysis (sensitivity = 0.67 and specificity = 0.76). the factor analysis using major elements and varimax rotation resulted in three factors. conclusions: our findings showed that the mdq had appropriate psychometric properties in our sample. this questionnaire can be used in screening by the health centers of iran.