An attempt to construct short scales measuring manic-depressive-like experience and behaviour.

Two nine-item self-rating questionnaire scales were developed to measure, on the one hand, features typically associated with a history of mania-like phenomena, and, on the other hand, features typically associated with a history of clinical depression. These scales were added to produce an 18-item scale which, it was hypothesized, might measure degree of history of manic-depressive-like phenomena. Results tended to support this view: (1) compared with students, manic-depressives obtained significantly higher scores on each of these three scales; (2) all scales, but especially the manic experience scale, correlated significantly positively with the MMPI Hypomania Scale; and (3) for a subset of the manic-depressives, a person's scores on two of the three new scales were significantly correlated with the number of different manic-depression-relevant medications that that person was taking.