Mental health assessment
Free Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) Bipolar Screen
Take the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, the most widely used brief screen for bipolar spectrum disorder. It asks about periods when you were not your usual self, takes about three minutes, and your answers never leave your device.
Frequently asked questions
What is the MDQ?
The Mood Disorder Questionnaire is a brief self-report screen for bipolar spectrum disorder, developed by Robert Hirschfeld and colleagues and published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2000. It has 13 yes/no symptom items plus two follow-up questions, and it is the most widely used bipolar screening instrument.
How is the MDQ scored?
A positive screen requires all three of the following: yes to at least 7 of the 13 symptom items, yes to the question about several symptoms happening during the same period, and moderate or serious on the question about resulting problems. Failing any one of the three gives a negative screen, even with all 13 symptoms endorsed.
Why can I answer yes to everything and still screen negative?
Because the MDQ is a gate rather than a total. Endorsing many symptoms across different times in your life is a different pattern from having them cluster into a distinct episode that caused problems. The co-occurrence and impairment questions are what test for that, and both must be satisfied.
How accurate is the MDQ?
It performs better at detecting bipolar I than bipolar II, and it misses milder hypomania relatively often. In general community samples its positive predictive value is limited, which is why a positive result indicates that assessment is warranted rather than that a diagnosis is likely. It is a screening instrument, and it is used as one.
About this screening tool
The MDQ was developed by Robert M. A. Hirschfeld and colleagues and published in 2000. It is copyrighted by its author and is freely available for clinical and research use without a licensing fee. This screener reproduces the standard 13-item version with its published three-part scoring rule, and is provided for information rather than as a substitute for clinical assessment.
References
Your MDQ result in context
Bipolar disorder is diagnosed on average years after symptoms begin, and the reason is structural rather than careless. People seek help when they feel terrible, which means during depression. Hypomania rarely brings anyone to an appointment, because feeling energetic, confident, and productive does not present as illness.
That asymmetry is what the MDQ exists to correct. Every one of its 13 items asks about the elevated pole, and it asks retrospectively, about periods that may have been years ago and that you may never have thought of as symptoms.
The distinction matters because treatment differs. Antidepressants given alone for what is actually bipolar depression can precipitate hypomania or accelerate mood cycling, which is why clinicians screen before prescribing and why a history of feeling wired on an antidepressant is worth mentioning without being asked.
Other screens you might also take
The MDQ covers only the elevated pole. These screens cover the rest of the picture a clinician would want.