Bipolar disorder assessment and monitoring measures in clinical care: Updates from a large randomized controlled trial in primary care

We evaluated the use of patient-reported assessment and monitoring clinical measures in a large, pragmatic, clinical trial that included patients with bipolar disorder receiving treatment in primary care settings. Evaluation included relationship to psychiatrist diagnosis of bipolar disorder (assessment measure), and psychometric properties, clinician preferences and preliminary patient preferences (monitoring measure). The monitoring measure is a novel patient-reported manic symptom measure, the Patient Mania Questionnaire-9 (PMQ-9), which was found to have favorable psychometric properties such as internal consistency and sensitivity to change. We determined it is feasible to combine the PMQ-9 with the depressive symptom measure Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) that is already widely used in primary care and specialty care, to monitor treatment of individuals with bipolar disorder. Moreover, doing so is consistent with the views and preferences of both clinicians and patients.