Comparing two short versions of the 32-item Hypomania Checklist (HCL-32) for patients with bipolar disorder

Purpose To compare the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) between Hypomania Checklist-20 (HCL-20) and HCL-16. Design and Methods Altogether, 350 subjects with bipolar disorders (BD) or major depressive disorders (MDD) were included. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and area under the curve between the HCL-20 and the HCL-16 for BD and its subtypes were compared. Findings The HCL-16 demonstrated superior performance in terms of sensitivity + specificity than HCL-20. For discriminating BD and BD-I patients from MDD patients, HCL-16 showed better sensitivity than HCL-20, while HCL-20 showed better specificity than HCL-16. Practice Implications Our results showed that both HCL-20 and HCL-16 have a fair screening ability, but HCL-16 showed a relatively superior performance considering its length.