A study, sponsored by GSK and headed by IDIBAPS, and involving PSYNCRO, a company located in the PCB and devoted to research in neuropsychology, together with 10 hospitals, shows that the HCL-32 test has the capacity to distinguish bipolar depressions with a success rate of 80%. The research has been conducted with the Spanish version of this test and has been published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Type II bipolar disorder is an under-diagnosed disease that can easily be confused with depression. In contrast to type I bipolar disorder, in type II the symptoms of depression and altered behaviour of those with manic depression are not clear and are difficult to differentiate. In fact, patients with this disorder visit their GP because they feel depressed, without suspecting that they are showing slight episodes of mania (euphoria and other cognitive behaviour). Diagnostic tools to successfully identify this pathology are lacking and a correct diagnosis may take between 8 and 10 years. In addition, anti-depression treatment can be counterproductive in patients with type II bipolar disorder. Dr. Eduard Vieta, with the team devoted to the biological bases of psychiatric disorders and nuclear psychiatry at the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), has coordinated the study to validate the Spanish version of the Hypomania symptom check list test (HCL-32), the development of which involves international collaboration.

In its most recent issue, the Journal of Affective Disorders has published results that confirm the usefulness of this simple questionnaire, comprising 32 questions, to differentiate severe depression from bipolar disorder. The main difference between HCL-32 and the test currently used, the Mood disorder questionnaire (MDQ), is the open nature of the questions, which encourages patients to give honest answers. However, these questions are designed in such a way that answers provide crucial information for the retrospective evaluation of energy/activity levels of patients and problems regarding the lack of inhibition, self-control and attention that they have experienced in the past. The new study compares the sensitivity of the two questionnaires and concludes that the HCL-32 test is more precise than the MDQ for the identification of patients with type II bipolar disorder. This study has been sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and has involved PSYNCRO, which has worked in collaboration with the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Girona.

A total of 237 individuals, recruited from 15 Depts. of Psychiatry, completed the HCL-32 test. With the exception of those in the control group (60), patients had been correctly diagnosed and were stable and receiving appropriate treatment for their disorder, either type I bipolar disorder (62), type II (56) or severe depression (58). The test identified more than 80% of the patients with bipolar disorder but did not make a differentiation between type I and II. However, this differentiation is relatively easy on the basis of patients’ clinical data. Therefore, this test is the first rapid means by which to identify bipolarity when a patient with depression seeks medical attention from his/her GP. Although further studies on larger populations are required, the HCL-32 test provides useful information for psychiatrists and above all for GPs.