The single item Distress Thermometer will assess global psychological distress [ 41, 42].
Practitioners can now choose to use PSCAN instead of the recommended single-item distress thermometer [ 5] or use it in a complementary fashion, as a second step, if the single item distress thermometer suggests elevated distress.
Shorter than any other standard assessment such as the HADS and Beck Depression Inventory, the ECOG functions much like the single-item Distress Thermometer.
Particularly popular is the single item distress thermometer [ 6] which, however has been criticized for inadequate specificity [ 7, 8] which then requires a referral for additional diagnostics.
22 Next to the DFT, patients were asked to complete the three-item Distress Screener (DS), which is a quick-scan instrument for emotional distress and an indicator of potential underlying severe mental health problems.
Practice nurses will also verbally administer the 3-item Distress Screener (DS), a quick-scan instrument for emotional distress and an indicator of potential underlying severe mental health problems [ 22].
The enclosed screening questionnaire will contain the same instruments that PNs in the intervention group are going to use to detect whether patients are eligible for the self-management support, i.e. the 'Daily Functioning Thermometer' (DFT) and the 3-item Distress Screener (DS) [ 22].
Their questionnaire includes a four-item distress-recurrence factor comprising four items (worry about cancer coming back, worried that pain indicates cancer, worried about dying from cancer, preoccupied with cancer concerns).
The questionnaire also informs about parent-identified difficulties, impact for the child (an item on distress and four items on social impairment; friendships, classroom learning, home life and leisure activities) and burden for the family.
"O.K., top of mind," Fernald said, and quickly ran through the most pressing items: the distress sale of a competitor's business in L.A., the layout of the West Hollywood store, and the possibility of turning the Santa Barbara location, which had shown lacklustre sales, into a trim shop, a place to sell ground beef in the form of hot dogs and hamburgers.
