PhenX Measures for Mental Research Collections
In 2013, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) launched the PhenX Measures for Mental Health Research (MHR)
Project with the goal of making it easier for mental health investigators to compare results and to combine data from
different studies. As a result of this project, a Core Collection and two Specialty Collections were selected by the Mental
Health Research Panel (MHRP) and MHR Working Groups (WGs), respectively. These collections were added to the Toolkit in
December 2014.
The MHR Collections are the result of a collaborative, consensus effort by the extramural scientific community and staff
members at NIMH, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the National Human Genome Research Institute, and RTI International. Further details on the MHR Project can be found
here.
Core Collections
The Core: Tier 1 collection includes 10 measures that are deemed relevant and essential to all areas of mental health research and
require very little time to collect (see table below). Eight of the Core: Tier 1 measures are focused on demographic and socioeconomic-related
measures. These measures are designed to create a common framework to facilitate cross-study data aggregation and to address questions
related to the effects of factors such as age, race, and SES on relevant outcomes. The Core: Tier 1 Collection also includes brief
self-report measures of both Broad Psychopathology and Impairment for both child and adult studies.
Core: Tier 2 includes 11 measures that are relevant to many areas of mental health research but are more specialized and require a greater
time commitment (see table below). Core: Tier 2 measures are
complementary to Core: Tier 1 and address three additional areas relevant to the vast majority of mental health-related studies: assessments
of substance use, life events, and perceived stress.
When selecting measures for Core: Tier 1 and Core: Tier 2, the MHRP recognized that the measures needed to be broadly validated,
reliable, appropriate for diverse populations, freely available, self-report , of low burden to investigators and respondents,
and brief. The tables below provided investigators with an estimate of how much time these measures will take to administer.
| Time to Complete Core: Tier 1 | ||
| PhenX Measure | Number of Questions (Adult Protocol) | Time to Complete (Adult Protocol) |
| Current Age | 2 | 0:00:12 |
| Race | 1 | 0:00:16 |
| Ethnicity | 2 | 0:00:18 |
| Gender | 1 | 0:00:06 |
| Current Marital Status | 1 | 0:00:06 |
| Current Educational Attainment | 1 | 0:00:14 |
| Annual Family Income | 1-4 | 0:00:30 |
| Child-Reported Educational Attainment | 2 | 0:00:26 |
| Impairment (Child/adolescent protocol includes 13 questions) | 12 | 0:01:21 |
| Broad Psychopathology (Child/adolescent protocol includes 25 questions) | 23 | 0:01:40 |
| Total | 46-50 | 0:05:09 |
| Time to Complete Core: Tier 2 | |||
| PhenX Measure | Number of Questions (Adult Protocol) | Time to Complete (Adult Protocol) | |
| Alcohol - Lifetime Use | 1 | 0:00:14 | |
| Alcohol - 30-Day Quantity and Frequency | 1-2 | 0:00:23 | |
| Alcohol - Age of First Use | 1 | 0:00:14 | |
| Substances - Lifetime Use | 0-10 | 0:00:53 | |
| Substances - 30-Day Frequency | 0-11 | 0:01:00 | |
| Substances - Age of First Use | 0-10 | 0:00:20 | |
| Tobacco - Smoking Status | 1-3 | 0:00:18 | |
| Tobacco - 30-day Quantity and Frequency | 0-2 | 0:00:25 | |
| Tobacco - Age of Initiation of Use | 0-2 | 0:00:20 | |
| Perceived Stress | 12 | 0:01:02 | |
| Life Events - Adults (Child/adolescent protocol includes 25 questions) | 23-69 | 0:10:00 | |
| Total | 39-123 | 0:15:09 | |
Specialty Collections
The measures in the Suicide, Post-traumatic Stress Psychopathology (including PTSD) and Eating Disorders, Early Psychosis Clinical Services and Early Psychosis Translational Research Specialty Collections are complementary to Core: Tier 1 and Core: Tier 2 and are deemed relevant and essential within these more specialized research domains. The Suicide Specialty Collection includes measures that address suicidal ideation and/or suicide behavior as well as measures that address suicide risk and protective factors. The Post-traumatic Stress Psychopathology (including PTSD) Specialty Collection includes measures for capturing exposure to potentially traumatic events and clinically characterizing PTSD as well as measures that address moderating factors, biomarkers, and functioning and disability. The Eating Disorders Specialty Collection includes measures to assess eating disorders diagnosis, psychopathology and behaviors, psychiatric comorbidities, and relevant cognitive functional domains. The Early Psychosis Clinical Services Specialty Collection identifies standardized measures of diagnosis, symptoms, functioning, treatment interventions, and recovery outcomes. The Early Psychosis Translational Research Specialty Collection recommends specific approaches for anatomical imaging and cognitive assessment.