Evidence-based assessment/Instruments/Young Mania Rating Scale

The Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), developed by Vincent E Ziegler, M.D., and published and popularized by Robert Young, is an eleven-item interview that measures the severity of manic symptoms. The scale was originally developed for use in the evaluation of adult patients with bipolar disorder, but has since been used in pediatric patients. It has become the most widely used outcome measure for manic symptoms in treatment studies. It also has been adapted for use as a questionnaire, potentially to use as a screening measure or diagnostic aid. The questionnaire has been studied with parents, teachers, and adolescents as respondents. The YMRS has shown good reliability in each of the formats, and good validity, including sensitivity to treatment effects as an interview. The questionnaire versions have shown statistical validity, but meta-analyses have found that there are better alternatives available. and it has an extremely high false positive rate.

Scoring and interpretation
Each question refers to specific aspects of the child’s behavior and mood the parent has witnessed in the past 24 hours. The scores from each question are added together to form a total score ranging from 0 to 60, with higher scores indicating a greater severity of symptoms.
 * For questions 1-4, 10, and 11: rate the person's behavior on a scale of 0 (the person did not experience or display the mood or behavior) to 4 (the person experienced or displayed the mood or behavior to a great degree)
 * For questions 5-9: rate the person's behavior on a scale from 0 (the person did not experience or display the mood or behavior) to 8 (the person experienced or displayed the mood or behavior to a great degree). The increased range for these items was based on Young's observation that these behaviors were rare and disruptive on an inpatient unit.