The Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) is an 11-item scale with five severity levels each. The fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth items are given double weight to better differentiate patients who are difficult to communicate with. It is administered by an experienced clinician in a 15-30 minute interview. The grading of severity is based on the patient's subjective judgment in the last 48 hours and the clinician's observations of the patient's behavior during the interview. The clinician's opinion is primarily important. However, in the following years, many studies were conducted by extending the time required for patient evaluation up to one week. Observations of the patient's relatives or ward staff are also used in the studies. The scale was translated into Turkish by a team of 3 people and then back into English by a psychiatrist who is fluent in English.The Turkish translation of the scale was found to be adequate by comparing the original version of the scale with the translated version from Turkish to English.
Cronbach's alpha method was applied for the internal reliability analysis between the scale items and the alpha values of both researchers' evaluation results were found to be .79. The correlations of the scale items with the total score ranged between .342-.817 except for sleep, appearance, and insight items. When examining the scale item-total score relationship, both the total-item and the ratios were examined by subtracting the item to be ratios from the total score each time.
In the original, the last 48 hours, but in many studies conducted in recent years, the last week is taken into consideration. The clinician's opinion is more important than what the patient says. It was not applied in this study, but in a validity and reliability study we participated in, it was suggested that if the clinician could not decide on items with 0-4 points (e.g. 2 or 3), he/she should give the higher score, and on items with 0-8 points, he/she should take the value in between (i.e. if he/she could not decide on 2 or 4, he/she should give 3 points). It is used to determine the severity of the current manic state, not to make a diagnosis. It is accepted that each upper step in the scale covers the previous lower steps. It is administered in a 15- 30 minute interview. The patient's own statements are allowed. Apart from the evaluation at the time of the interview, information can be obtained from the service staff or the patient's family.