Child Mania Rating Scale

FBH Blog

CHILD MANIA RATING SCALE:  PARENT VERSION

This rating scale has been developed to determine the likelihood that your child or adolescent has bipolar disorder. Some of the questions are sensitive in nature. Please understand this is medical questionnaire and in no way is meant to be offensive. It is meant to identify serious problems and help your doctor save your child and adolescent's life. 

INSTRUCTIONS

Questions 1-21 are about your child’s mood & behavior in the past month.

A problem = causing trouble & beyond normal for your child's age.

Choose 'Never or rarely' if the behavior is NOT causing trouble.

CHOICES:

NEVER/ RARELY = 0

SOMETIMES = 1

OFTEN = 2 

VERY OFTEN = 3

Interpreting the results of the CMRS, Parent Version:

A total score of greater than 20 =  your child or adolescent should have a diagnostic evaluation by a Fellowship Trained Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist because the score indicates a high likelihood of current mania or hypomania.

Please note:

This is simply a screening tool. A Fellowship Trained Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist is an expert who can diagnose mania or hypomania. This tool should not be used in place of a consultation with a Fellowship Trained Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. Regardless of the results of this screen, if you have any concerns, see your doctor or mental health professional and ask them to refer you to a Fellowship Trained Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist or obtain a consultation. 

1. Have periods of feeling super happy for hours or days at  a  time, extremely wound up and excited, such as feeling  "on top of the world"  

2. Feel irritable, cranky, or mad for hours or days at a time  

3. Think that he or she can be anything or do anything (e.g., leader, best basket ball player, rap singer, millionaire, princess) beyond what is usual for that age 

4. Believe that he or she has unrealistic abilities or powers that are unusual, and may try to act upon them, which causes trouble    

5. Need less sleep than usual; yet does not feel tired the next day  

6. Have periods of too much energy  

7. Have periods when she or he talks too much or too loud or talks a mile-a-minute  

8. Have periods of racing thoughts that his or her mind cannot slow down , and it seems that your child’s mouth  cannot keep up with his or her mind  

9. Talk so fast that he or she jumps from topic to topic  

10. Rush around doing things nonstop    

11. Have trouble staying on track and is easily drawn  to what is happening around him or her  

12. Do many more things than usual, or is unusually  productive or highly creative        

13. Behave in a sexually inappropriate way (e.g., talks dirty, exposing, playing with private parts, masturbating, making sex phone calls, humping dogs, playing sex games, touches others sexually)  

14. Go and talk to strangers inappropriately, is more socially outgoing than usual  

15. Do things that are unusual for him or her that are foolish or risky (e.g., jumping off heights, ordering CDs with your credit cards, giving things away)    

16. Have rage attacks, intense and prolonged temper tantrums  

17. Crack jokes or pun more than usual, laugh loud, or act silly in a way that is out of the ordinary  

18. Experience rapid mood swings  

19. Have any suspicious or strange thoughts  

20. Hear voices that nobody else can hear    

21. See things that nobody else can see 

CMRS was developed by M. Pavuluri, MD