Objective To compare the reliability and validity of Mood Disorder Questionnaire （MDQ） and 32 Items Hypomania Checklist （HCL-32） in patients with mood disorders. Methods A total of 212 patients with mood disorders in Beijing Anding Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from September 2014 to December 2015 were recruited， including 107 patients with unipolar depressive disorder （UP） in UP group and 105 patients with bipolar disorder （BP） in BP group. Principal component analysis was used to analyze the two scales. Cronbach's α coefficient was used to evaluate the internal consistency reliability of the two scales， and Spearman correlation was used to analyze the correlation between each item score of the two scales and the total score. The positive response rates and scores of the two scales were compared between the two groups. The screening performance of the two scales was analyzed by using the receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve. The area under the ROC curve was also compared. Results MDQ had a two-factor structure， with eigenvalues of 5.39 and 1.47 respectively， and the two factors explained 52.81% of the total variance. HCL- 32 had a three-factor structure， with eigenvalues of 12.61， 2.87 and 1.84 respectively， and the three factors explained 54.11% of the total variance. Cronbach's α for MDQ and HCL-32 were 0.88 （95%CI=0.85-0.90） and 0.95 （95%CI=0.94-0.96） respectively. The correlation coefficients between each item of MDQ and HCL-32 and the total score were 0.50-0.72 （P＜ 0.01） and 0.16-0.78 （P＜ 0.05）， respectively. In all MDQ items， the positive response rate of BP group was higher than that of UP group. For HCL-32， positive response rates were higher in the BP group than in the UP group except item 32. The total score of MDQ in UP group was lower than that in BP group ［3.00 （0， 5.00） vs 5.00 （1.50， 9.00）］. The total score of HCL-32 in UP group was lower than that in BP group ［9.00（1.00，17.00） vs 17.00 （12.00， 23.50）］. The differences are statistically significant （Z= -4.03，-5.02； P＜ 0.01）. The areas under the ROC curve of MDQ and HCL-32 were 0.66 （95%CI=0.59-0.73， P ＜ 0.001） and 0.70 （95%CI=0.63-0.77， P ＜ 0.001）. There was no significant difference in the area under the ROC curve between the two scales （Z=1.07， P=0.28）. The optimal cut-off of MDQ was 6， sensitivity was 0.48， specificity was 0.82. The optimal cut-off of HCL-32 was 8， sensitivity was 0.85， and specificity was 0.47. Conclusions MDQ and HCL-32 have good reliability and validity in patients with mood disorders， and both can be applied to the screening of UP and BP in specialized hospitals. HCL-32 has higher sensitivity and lower specificity than MDQ.