The Hypomanic Check List
Epidemiological studies
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Research Goals & Development of HCL
Page 3: Selection of Patients for HCL Studies
Page 4: Epidemiological Studies & Comparison with Other Instruments
Page 5: Publications & References
Page 6: Contact Information (webgroup/mailing list)
Studies on the factor structure of the HCL-32 in normal population samples were carried out in Germany and Sweden; a first paper is already in preparation (Meyer et al. 2006). There was good agreement with the two factors found in patient studies.
Internet: A web-version of the HCL-32 has been developed help to collect data from the normal population. It will be of interest to see the presence of hypomanic symptomatology in non clinical cases from an international group with access to the internet. This work is conducted by Yanni Malliaris and his student George Salaminios at the Institute of Psychiatry in the UK. The survey is currently online. Follow the link to participate:
NEW - We Just Lunched our Online Web-Survey with HCL-32, titled:
…Click Here to Participate!!!
*remember to mention that you found the survey through BipolarLab.com in order to assist with our data analysis. If you wish to have a report provide your contact details at the end of the survey.
Comparisons with other instruments
Another screening instrument for bipolar spectrum disorders is the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) of Hirschfeld et al. 2000. This is compared to the HCL-32 but it is also more tailored to the diagnostic concept of DSM-IV hypomania. The MDQ has good sensitivity and specificity for BP-I disorder, specific data on BP-II disorders have not been published yet (Hirschfeld et al.). A German version of the MDQ is available (Kasper 2003).
Up to now there is no study in which the MDQ was given together with the HCL-32. There is one analysis (Carta et al. submitted 2005), which compared two very similar patient samples, a first assessed with the MDQ and a second with the HCL-32. A direct correlation of MDQ with the HDL-32 was obtained from a study in Barcelona (Vieta et al. in preparation); it shows a correlation of over .80.
Financial support
There is no financial support available from Zurich. In a few centres research on the HCL-32 was supported by pharmaceutical companies.
