Bipolar Disorder Assessment and Community Intervention Programs Assignment

Bipolar Disorder Assessment and Community Intervention Programs - Assignment Example In the market, as it is, there are three versions of the Beck Depression Inventory, which are basically improvements on previous versions (Parker & Ketter, 2010). The original version was first introduced for use in 1961 and is generally referred to as the BDI (Parker & Ketter, 2010). This was later in 1978 revised into the BDI-1A, which was also consequently modified into 1996’s BDI-II (Parker & Ketter, 2010). Presently, the BDI-II remains the most widely used version of the Beck Depression Inventory (Parker & Ketter, 2010). The BDI is a 21 question inventory of self-report rating which evaluates the common symptoms and attitudes associated with bipolar disorder (Rosner, 2014). The BDI is available in a number of different convenient forms such as computerized forms and card forms (Clinical Psychology, 2015). The forms require approximately 10 minutes to successfully complete (Beck Depression Inventory-II, 2015). However, the user requires a 5th to the 6th grade level of read ing competency in order that they may properly understand the questions and thus respond appropriately (Parker & Ketter, 2010). The multiple choice questionnaire, which is suited for persons who are 13 years of age and over, delves on items that determine presence/ absence of symptoms of bipolar disorder like irritability, hopelessness, feeling of being punished, guilt, fatigue, lack/ loss of interest in sex, loss of weight, and so on (Clinical Psychology, 2015).The assessment can be self-administered or done verbally by a trained administrator. The user of the instrument has the responsibility of ensuring appropriate use of the test, such as in administration, interpretation, application, and scoring of the results (Clinical Psychology, 2015). Some test instances can be given and rated/ scaled by persons with lower levels of training as long as they remain under the supervision of a qualified user (Parker & Ketter, 2010).