The Mood and Behavior Questionnaire is now live on The unhide® Solve Together Unified Platform! Your lived experience matters, and we’d love to learn from you!
The Mood and Behavior Questionnaire (MBQ) is a new research tool created to help us better understand the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral experiences of people experiencing neuroimmune conditions. Many existing questionnaires focus narrowly on just one aspect of mental health, such as depression or anxiety. If you’ve ever felt like existing mental health questionnaires don’t fully capture what you’re going through, you’re not alone. That gap is exactly what inspired the creation of the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire (MBQ).
The MBQ is different: it asks about bringing these experiences together in one place and offers a fuller picture of how these symptoms can interact and change over time.
“I’m particularly excited about the development of the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire. I think it’s fair to say that all clinical research on neuroimmune illnesses— – whether it’s related to treatment, disease mechanisms, or symptom triggers— – suffers from the lack of concise measurement tools that capture the spectrum of mood and behavioral symptoms that cause impairment in these heterogeneous conditions. When we borrow standardized instruments from adjacent conditions, like those addressing only depression or only OCD, we are only studying a fraction of the symptoms that people with neuroimmune conditions experience, and we risk missing a great deal since that fraction may plague only certain subsets of people and only at some times. This problem, which can obscure treatment effects, underestimate disease burden, and cause us to miss early warning signs that may allow worse symptoms to be prevented, can only be solved when we develop and test more neuroimmune-tailored measurement instruments. – such as the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire, - on large numbers of people across their disease journeys.”
Denice Calaprice, Ph.D.
– Brain Inflammation Collaborative Co-founder & Senior Program Advisor
What is the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire (MBQ)? Why is it important?
The questionnaire has detailed, easy-to-follow instructions and includes questions about experiences over the past month, such as:
- Mood changes
- Anxiety levels
- Sleep patterns
- Sensory sensitivities
- Ability to plan, stay focused, and manage daily tasks
The questionnaire takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and can be done on a computer or mobile device. If you’re busy or get tired, you can save your progress and return to it later.
Who is the MBQ for, and who can take it?
The MBQ is for children, teens, adults, and parents! Customized versions of the survey have been designed for various groups willing to participate.
There are three versions of the questionnaire:
- Children (ages 7–12): Short, simple questions written in kid-friendly language
- Teens through adults (ages 13+): A more detailed version focused on personal experiences
- Parents or caregivers: A version that helps adults provide information about their child’s symptoms and daily functioning
“I’m really excited about the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire because we put so much care into making it work for people of all ages. The language across the different forms is adapted as kids express their mood and behavior differently than teens, adults, and their parents. We also made sure to include a wide range of symptoms so we can capture the full variety of ways neuroimmune illnesses can affect someone’s day-to-day life, knowing that the impacts of these conditions are unique to each person. We appreciate your willingness to share about your experiences to help us move this research forward in a meaningful way.”
-Melanie Helvick, M.Psy., M.A.
Former Clinical Research Associate at the Brain Inflammation Collaborative
Written By
Melanie Helvick
Former Clinical Research Associate, Brain Inflammation Collaborative
