The Mood Disorder Questionnaire is a useful screening instrument for bipolar spectrum disorder in a psychiatric outpatient population.

Extensive empirical research, summarized in several reviews and codified in practice guidelines, recommendations, and algorithms, demonstrates that several pharmacological and psychosocial interventions are effective in improving the lives of persons with severe mental illnesses. Yet the practices validated by research are not widely offered in routine mental health practice settings. As part of an effort to promote the implementation of evidence-based practice, the authors summarize perspectives on how best to change and sustain effective practice from the research literature and from the experiences of administrators, clinicians, family advocates, and services researchers. They describe an implementation plan for evidence-based practices based on the use of toolkits to promote the consistent delivery of such practices. The toolkits will include integrated written material, Web-based resources, training experiences, and consultation opportunities. Special materials will address the concerns of mental health authorities (funders), administrators of provider organizations, clinicians, and consumers and their families.

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Methodologically rigorous, large-scale clinical trials of treatment of acute mania are urgently needed to provide information regarding the safety and efficacy, in youth, of diverse agents with potential mood-stabilizing properties.

This study compares referrals for mental health services among high school students randomized to two means of referral to mental health services: referral via systematic identification through a brief mental health screening procedure (n = 365) or referral via the usual process of identification by school personnel, parents, or students themselves (n = 291). Screened students were significantly more likely than control students (AOR: 21.64 95%CI 6.66–70.36) to receive a referral for mental health services, whether it be to school‐based services (AOR: 11.68 95%CI 3.52–8.73) or community‐based services (AOR: 20.02 95%CI 2.66–150.41). Post‐study, for those screened, 95.5% of school‐based mental health services referrals, and 39.3% of community‐based referrals were accessed. School based mental health screening identified a significantly greater proportion of youth to be in clinical need of mental health services than would have likely been identified without screening, and increased rates of referral resulted in greater access to mental health services.