Abstract
Background: The Mood Rhythm Instrument (MRI) is a new self-report questionnaire that aims to assess, the presence, and timing of daily patterns of mood-related symptoms. Here, we examined the reliability of the MRI against a prospective daily investigation over the course of 15 days. As a secondary aim, we examined whether the number of items with a perceived daily pattern correlated with severity of depressive symptoms and psychological well-being.Methods: Thirty-two participants recruited from the general population were asked to prospectively fill out a daily version of the MRI (MRI-d) for 15 days. On the 16th day, they filled out the MRI, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the World Health Organization 5-item well-being index (WHO-5).Results: The MRI showed high agreement with the MRI-d, which suggests that the MRI is a valid tool to assess daily patterns of mood symptoms. The number of mood symptoms perceived as having daily peaks correlated positively with BDI scores and negatively with WHO-5 scores.Conclusions: The MRI might be a valid tool to investigate the presence of daily patterns and the timing of mood-related factors.The MRI does not seem to be influenced by recall or recency biases. Future studies should test the usefulness of this new clinical instrument in individuals with mood disorders, as well as its ability to detect changes in the daily timing of mood symptoms before and after treatment.
Highlights
Several lines of evidence highlight the mechanistic and phenomenological links between mood symptoms and circadian rhythms [1,2,3]
In a large study using the Mood Rhythm Instrument (MRI) to examine community samples (N = 708), we have recently shown that the presence of daily patterns of specific MRI items was significantly associated with higher risk for psychiatric disorders [15]
The main finding of this study is that the retrospectively-scored MRI displayed high agreement with the prospectively-recorded Mood Rhythm Instrument Diary (MRI-d), which suggests that the MRI is a valid tool to assess rhythmicity—daily patterns and timing—of mood disordersrelated factors
Summary
Several lines of evidence highlight the mechanistic and phenomenological links between mood symptoms and circadian rhythms [1,2,3]. Despite the well-established link between alterations in circadian rhythms and the development and clinical presentation of mood disorders, the majority of previous studies have focused on the circadian fluctuation of sleep/appetite patterns, hormonal levels, and sexual/social behaviors. A better understanding of the circadian rhythmicity of mood symptoms will help to identify individuals whose severity of mood symptoms follow an altered circadian rhythm, which can guide more accurate treatment decisions. To address this gap, we have recently developed the Mood Rhythm Instrument (MRI). The. The Mood Rhythm Instrument (MRI) is a new self-report questionnaire that aims to assess, the presence, and timing of daily patterns of mood-related symptoms. We examined whether the number of items with a perceived daily pattern correlated with severity of depressive symptoms and psychological well-being
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