The Hypomania Checklist HCL-32 (Angst et al. 2005) is still in development as a screening instrument for hypomania in depressed patients and as a research tool.

The original HCL-32 was slightly modified, omitting one tricky question on consequences (HCL-32 R1) and recently (HCL-32 R2) by adding two new symptoms (gambling and overeating). It is currently available in 27 languages.

New investigations include a Europe-wide GAMIAN study, individual studies in Brazil, Tunisia, Lebanon, Turkey, Korea, Taiwan and China, and the ongoing worldwide multicentre BRIDGE study.

1. 1. new data have been collected on the re-test reliability in China and Sweden and correlations with the Mood Disorder Questionnaire in Brazil;

2. 2. exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis re-confirmed a two-factor structure (elated/overactive vs. irritable/risk taking) of the self-assessed hypomanic syndrome, replicable in over 1500 subjects from the community and patients with mood disorders across all cultures so far analysed;

3. 3. total item scores have repeatedly been shown to be independent of the current mood state (normal, low, high);

4. 4. adolescents/young adults in love feel high, and score comparably to bipolar-II patients on the HCL-32 (Brand et al 2007);

5. 5. 89% of bariatric patients were also found to be high scorers on the HCL-32 (Alciati et al. 2007);

6. 6. studies with the HCL-32 in subjects with alcohol use disorders (AUD) (previously shown to be strongly associated with bipolarity) are ongoing.

Trans-cultural comparisons and evaluation of the questions on the consequences of hypomania for case-definition.