Discriminative validity of parent report of hypomanic and depressive symptoms on the general behavior inventory

It often is difficult clinically to differentiate bipolar disorder from oth er mental health conditions in young people. This study evaluated a parent report measure of depressive and hypomanic/biphasic symptoms. Parents of 19 6 youths, who were 5 to 17 years old and presented at an outpatient researc h center, completed an adapted General Behavior Inventory (GBI). Factor ana lyses suggested two dimensions, depression (alpha = .97) and biphasic/hypom ania (alpha = .95). Logistic regressions using these scales discriminated m ood disorder versus disruptive behavior disorder or no diagnosis, unipolar versus bipolar disorder, and bipolar versus disruptive behavior disorder ba sed on structured interviews. Classification rates exceeded 80%, and receiv er operating characteristic analyses showed good diagnostic efficiency for the scales, with areas under the curve greater than .80. Results indicate t hat clinicians can use the parent-completed GBI to derive clinically meanin gful information about mood disorders in youths.