Spanish validation of the Barcelona TEMPS-A questionnaire in patients with bipolar disorder and general population

Background: The Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego (TEMPS-A) is a self-administered questionnaire intended to assess five affective temperaments: depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable and anxious. Our objective was to examine the psychometric properties of the TEMPS-A using a sample comprised by patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and healthy controls (HC) and to determine cut-off scores for each temperament. Methods: Five hundred and ninety-eight individuals (327 BD and 271 HC) completed the TEMPS-A. Cronbach's alpha was used to examine internal consistency reliability. Test-retest reliability and association between different temperamental scales were assessed using Spearman correlation. To confirm factor structure a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out. Cut-off scores indicating the presence of dominant temperament were also calculated. Results: Internal consistency was optimal for all temperament subscales (alpha: 0.682- 0.893). The questionnaire demonstrated good test-retest reliability (rho: 0.594-0.754). The strongest positive associations were found between cyclothymic and anxious and between depressive and anxious temperaments. Hyperthymic and depressive as well as hyperthymic and anxious temperaments showed a strong negative correlation. Limitations: The HC sample was not matched with the BD group. There were some sociodemographic and clinical differences between groups that may impact on the obtained results. A portion of patients with BD was recruited from tertiary centers. Conclusions: The Spanish version of the Barcelona TEMPS-A questionnaire presents a good internal consistency and their results are stable in clinical population. The performance of the Barcelona TEMPS-A is as good as the original scale.