Measurement of mood states in stroke patients: validation of the visual analog mood scales.

OBJECTIVE: The Visual Analog Mood Scales (VAMS) were recently developed by Stern and colleagues to assess mood state in neurologically impaired patients. These brief scales require that a patient place a single pen mark along a 100mm vertical line to indicate how he or she presently feels. Although previous studies have garnered evidence in support of the validity of these brief scales when administered to psychiatric patients and healthy young adult and geriatric control subjects, it is presently unknown whether the VAMS are valid measures of internal mood state in neurologically impaired stroke patients. The purpose of the present investigation was to assess reliability and validity of the VAMS in a stroke-patient population. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 41 (21 men and 20 women) inpatients admitted for either acute stroke or rehabilitation following stroke.
DESIGN: Participants completed both the VAMS and a modified version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Nonparametric multitrait-multimethod analyses were performed using the Pearson correlations among and between the six subscales of the VAMS and the POMS.
CONCLUSION: The VAMS possess good convergent and discriminant validity when administered to stroke inpatients, providing further support for the utility of these brief, easily administered scales.