Clinical features of differential diagnosis between unipolar and bipolar depression in a drug-free sample of young adults.

Introduction: Subjects with bipolar disorder suffering of a depressive episode are frequently misdiagnosed as unipolar depression, being important studies assessing the differential diagnosis between bipolar and unipolar depression.

Objective: To assess the sociodemographic and clinical features of drug-free young adults in a depressive episode of bipolar or unipolar disorder in order to identify factors that may differentiate these psychiatric conditions.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with 241 young adults aged between 18 and 29 years who were evaluated using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID).

[Sensitivity and specificity of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) among adults from the general population].

This population-based study focused on the validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for screening major depressive episodes in the general population in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Households were selected by multi-stage sampling, and adults (> 20 years) were invited to participate. The gold standard was the structured diagnostic Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), applied by psychiatrists and psychologists.