A brief POMS measure of distress for cancer patients.

The authors describe an 11-item short form of the Profile of Mood States' 58-item Total Mood Disturbance Score (TMDS). The Brief TMDS was derived from a sample of 619 adults with mixed cancer diagnoses, and replicated on a second sample of 295 lung cancer patients. Internal consistency of the Brief TMDS and the correlations of the Brief TMDS with the full TMDS were highly satisfactory for both samples. Given the difficulty many medically ill people have with lengthy self-report scales, and the increasing importance of measuring distress as an adjunct to patient care, this measure shows promise as a rapid, reliable tool.