Thirdly, studies of bipolar prodromes have used either a checklist or an open-ended interview. Smithand Tarrier (1992) used a 40-item checklist and Altman et al. (1992) used the British Psychiatric Rating Scale (Lukoff, Nuechterein& Ventura,1986). Others just asked patients about their prodromes in an open interview. Examples include Joyce (I 9S5) who rated patients’ ability to describe in detail the sequence of development of their own symptoms, Lam and Wong (1997) and Molnar et al. (1988) who asked bipolar patientsto report prodromes spontaneously. There are pros and cons of using a checklist or an open-ended interview. Some investigators used a predetermined list of prodromes. The advantage of a predetermined list is that it is convenient and can be sent to patients to complete. However, bipolar patients reported individual patterns of prodromal symptoms (Lam & Wong. 1997). A predetermined list may lack some of the more idiosyncratic “relapse signatures of prodromes” and does not measure all the changes in the cognitive. affective or behavioural aspects of a prodromal stage. Patients may also betempted to endorse prodromes indiscriminately or to endorse items that are similar to a full-blown episode. Lastly, most of the available scales, such as the BPRS, measure general psychiatric symptoms,are not specific to bipolar illness. The advantage of an open-ended interview approach is that there is noa priori assumption of what the patient’s prodrornal symptoms may be. It also allows subjects to reportsymptoms that are more prominent in their recall and can accommodate more individual differences. Theobvious disadvantages of an interview approach are that it demands more manpower and is moreexpensive.