Measuring Mood Spectrum: Comparison of Interview
(SCI-MOODS) and Self-Report (MOODS-SR) Instruments
Liliana Dell’Osso, Antonella Armani, Paola Rucci, Ellen Frank, Andrea Fagiolini, Giorgio Corretti,
M. Katherine Shear, Victoria J. Grochocinski, Jack D. Maser, Jean Endicott,
and Giovanni B. Cassano
Spectrum phenomena include, in addition to the typ-
ical DSM core symptoms, isolated or atypical symp-
toms, often of low severity, as well as trait-like behav-
ioral features that arise as a result of coping with the
psychopathology. We have demonstrated the psycho-
metric properties of five Structured Clinical Interviews
for the assessment of specific mood and anxiety spec-
trum conditions, including the Structured Clinical
Interview for Mood Spectrum (SCI-MOODS). The
present report describes the reliability of the self-
report version (MOODS-SR) of the SCI-MOODS in a
sample of 21 patients with a mood disorder and 20
control subjects. Agreement between the self-report
and the interview formats was substantial. Intraclass
correlation coefficients (ICC) ranged from 0.88 to 0.97.
Our findings provide support for the reliability of the
MOODS-SR questionnaire.
Copyright
©
2002 by W.B. Saunders Company
A
GROWING body of evidence indicates the
clinical relevance of the subthreshold or
atypical presentations of mood and anxiety disor-
der phenomena.
1-9
This evidence suggests the po-
tential usefulness of a thorough dimensional as-
sessment of the psychopathological continuum that
includes and gives importance to all the manifes-
tations of a disorder, including prodromal, typical,
atypical, residual, and trait-like symptoms. Our
experience suggests that a spectrum approach is
useful in many clinical and research contexts, in-
cluding disorder or recurrence prevention, treat-
ment selection, outcome measurement, and subtyp-
ing for research purposes.
5,6,8-10
The Structured Clinical Interview for Mood
Spectrum (SCI-MOODS) is organized into seven
symptom domains. It was designed to evaluate the
lifetime presence/absence of the full range of fea-
tures of mood psychopathology that a clinician
might observe: DSM-IV core symptoms of depres-
sion and mania, atypical symptoms, subthreshold
manifestations, and behavioral traits that arise as a
means of coping with mood symptoms. All of these
manifestations are commonly seen in clinical pop-
ulations, but, except for the core or criterion symp-
toms, are not mentioned in the current psychiatric
classifications.
The psychometric properties of the SCI-
MOODS have been reported elsewhere
11
; how-
ever, we summarize our findings briefly here. In
our original validation study, conducted on a large
sample (N ϭ 491) of mixed participants including
university students (n ϭ 141), gastrointestinal pa-
tients (n ϭ 116), and patients with unipolar depres-
sion (n ϭ 112) or bipolar disorder (nϭ122) in
remission, we demonstrated that the instrument
discriminates between patients and controls (mean
domain and total scores were significantly higher
in the former, all t tests being significant at P Ͻ
.001). Moreover, while the manic domain scores were
higher in bipolar than in unipolar patients (t tests sig-
nificant at P Ͻ .001), the depressive domain scores did
not differ between these two groups, thereby support-
ing the content validity of the instrument. The internal
consistency (Cronbach alpha) for the seven domains
ranged between 0.72 and 0.92.
We have since developed the MOODS-SR, a
self-report version of the SCI-MOODS that pre-
cisely matches the interview content. Here, we
report on the reliability of the new self-report in-
strument.
METHOD
Subjects
Forty-one subjects were recruited over a 6-month period at
the Department of Psychiatry in the University of Pisa; 21 were
outpatients with a mood disorder in remission and 20 were
control subjects. Patients with mood disorder included six in-
From the Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharma-
cology, Biotechnology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Depart-
ment of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medi-
cine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, PA;
University of California, San Diego, CA; Columbia University,
New York, NY; and the New York State Psychiatric Institute,
New York, NY.
Supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health
Grants No. MH-29618 and MH-30915.
Address reprint requests Liliana Dell’Osso, M.D., Depart-
ment of Psychiatry at DPNFB, Via Roma 67, 56100 Pisa, Italy.
Copyright
©
2002 by W.B. Saunders Company
0010-440X/02/4301-0010$35.00/0
doi:10.1053/comp.2002.29852
Comprehensive Psychiatry,
Vol. 43, No. 1 ( January/February), 2002: pp 69-73 69