Young Mania Rating Scale
The Young Mania Rating Scale is a clinician-rated mania severity measure. This page explains it for clinics. It is not a patient self-test.
Overview
What is the YMRS?
YMRS is used to rate manic symptom severity based on clinician observation and interview. It is common in research and some specialist mood services. It does not diagnose bipolar disorder by itself.
Development and clinical use
Young and colleagues published the scale in 1978. Subsequent use in trials made it a familiar specialist rating. Training and anchor interpretation affect reliability.
- Administrator
- Trained clinician
- Mode
- Interview and observation
- Typical use
- Severity monitoring
- Not a self-report
- Rater required
- Clinical role
- Severity support
- Diagnosis
- Not established by score
Administration
A focused clinician rating
A clinician rates items after interview and observation. It should not be converted into an unsupervised questionnaire. Digital capture must keep the rater in the loop.
- One rated item at a time with visible progress
- Keyboard-operable response choices
- Previous, next, and review steps for the rater
- Clear confirmation that the rating is stored for clinic review
Each item shows its published keys, and four items are rated on a doubled 0-8 range.
Report showcase
Designed to make evidence easy to review
The downloadable synthetic example illustrates report layout using invented response patterns, without patient data or instrument questions.
- Named instrument, version, and provenance
- Item-level response pattern without source wording
- Methodology, references, and clinical boundary
- Responsible clinician review rather than automated conclusions
Clinician review required
Methodology
Understand the measure and its scoring conventions
Lirena stores the Young et al. (1978) items and keys with the published guide for scoring items. Items 5, 6, 8 and 9 are rated 0-8 and carry twice the weight of the other seven (0-4), for a 0-60 total. The published scale defines no severity bands, so none is applied.
References
- Original YMRS paperYoung RC, Biggs JT, Ziegler VE, Meyer DA. A rating scale for mania: reliability, validity and sensitivity. Br J Psychiatry. 1978;133:429-435.
Questions
What clinics ask before they evaluate the YMRS
These answers stay inside educational catalogue scope. They do not replace official manuals or clinician judgement.
Is YMRS a questionnaire for patients?
No. It is clinician-rated after interview and observation.
Does YMRS diagnose bipolar disorder?
No. It estimates rated mania severity inside a wider clinical assessment.
Can I complete YMRS here?
No. This page is educational only.
What should clinics check?
Rater training, official anchors, and how the rating will sit beside the mood history.