Validity of the National Institutes of Mental Health Life Chart self version (NIHM-sLCM)

Introduction: While the clinician-rated form of the LCM has shown good validity and reliability validity of the patient-rated form has not been demonstrated yet. We tested the self-rated against the clinician-rated form and several other clinician-rated scales. Methods: Data is derived from participants of the Naturalistic follow-up study (Nfs) at both german sites of the Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network (SFBN). In the Nfs the retrospective and prospective form of the LCM as well as several scales were used. We compared the self-rated and the clinician-rated versions of the LCM and examined correlations between the selfrated-version and IDS-C, YMRS, and CGI-BP. Statistical calculation was performed using the chi-square test and the t test were used. To estimate the correlation Pearson's coefficient was calculated. Results: Data of about 108 patients were available for this evaluation. Comparison of patient-rated and clinician-rated charts revealed corresponding ratings between 63% and 91% for each mood level. Greatest differences were observed for slight hypomania and subdepression. We found good correlation between patient lifechart and clinician rated IDS, the YMRS, and the CGI-BP (r=-.72, r=0.72, r=0.65; p<0.001). Conclusions: Showing good concordance with the clinician-rated the self-rated lifechart might offer a cost effective alternative to clinican-rated lifecharts. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Stanley Medical Research Institute.