Instruments
Unlike other areas of medicine, the assessment of mental health aspects still lacks laboratory tests or objective measures to guide clinical practice and research. In this context, the use of standardized instruments—such as questionnaires and structured or semi-structured interviews—plays a key role in organizing and systematizing information.
Prodia is dedicated to providing internationally recognized clinical and research instruments in the field of child and adolescent mental health, in versions that are culturally and linguistically adapted to the Brazilian context. The translation and cross-cultural adaptation processes follow rigorous protocols, ensuring conceptual equivalence and psychometric adequacy between the original and translated versions.
Below, we present three instruments that have been carefully translated and adapted into Brazilian Portuguese by our team.
MFQ (Mood and Feelings Questionnaire)
The MFQ was developed to assess depressive symptoms in children and adolescents, both in clinical and population-based contexts. Available in three versions—child/adolescent (MFQ-C, self-report), parent (MFQ-P, parent-report), and adult (MFQ-A, self-report)—the instrument provides a comprehensive measure of affective and behavioral aspects relevant to identifying and monitoring depressive symptoms.
The translation and adaptation process carried out by Prodia followed standardized methodological steps—including forward translation, back-translation, expert review, and pilot testing—resulting in a version that is linguistically accessible, culturally appropriate, and psychometrically sound for use in the Brazilian context.
K-SADS-PL (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children – Present and Lifetime Version)
The K-SADS-PL is a widely used semi-structured diagnostic interview, considered the gold standard for assessing psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, according to DSM-5 criteria. The instrument allows for the detailed collection of information on current and past episodes of various disorders, based on interviews with the child/adolescent and their caregivers.
The Brazilian version of the K-SADS-PL, translated and adapted by Prodia, preserves the conceptual and diagnostic integrity of the original instrument while incorporating the necessary linguistic and cultural adjustments for use in the Brazilian context. The translation process involved national experts in each of the diagnostic categories relevant to childhood and adolescence. This version represents an essential resource for clinical, epidemiological, and professional practice research in the country.
All the instruments translated and adapted by Prodia and made available on this website are shared with the authorization of their authors for open-access distribution, exclusively for non-commercial purposes.
These instruments are intended for use in research and clinical practice and should not be used for self-diagnosis without evaluation and follow-up by qualified health professionals.