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Arch Womens Ment Health (2006) 9: 4149DOI 10.1007/s00737-005-0103-yOriginal contributionDaily Record of Severity of Problems (DRSP):
reliability and validityJ. Endicott1, J. Nee1, and W. Harrison21 Department of Research Assessment and Training, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, U.S.A.2 Pfizer Inc., New York, U.S.A.Received November 29, 2004; accepted August 22, 2005Published online September 20, 2005 # Springer-Verlag 2005SummaryThe Daily Record of Severity of Problems (DRSP) form was developedto aid in the diagnosis and evaluation of DSM-IV PremenstrualDysphoric Disorder (PMDD). The reliability and validity of the procedure was tested in two studies. Study A included 27 subjects whoranged from having few or no premenstrual problems to those who metcriteria for PMDD. Study B included 243 subjects, all of whom metcriteria for PMDD. Individual items and Summary Scores had hightestretest reliability in both studies. Internal consistency of SummaryScores was also high in both studies. Summary Scores had moderate tohigh correlations with other measures of severity of illness. In addition,items and Summary Scores have been shown to be sensitive to changeand to treatment differences in Study B. The DRSP provides sensitive,reliable, and valid measures of the symptoms and impairment criteriafor PMDD.Keywords: Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder; Daily Record ofSeverity of Problems; reliability; validity; diagnosis.IntroductionDaily ratings are essential to confirm a preliminary diagnosis of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)as defined by the criteria in the Fourth Edition of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of the AmericanPsychiatric Association (DSM-IV) (1994). (Fig. 1) Inaddition, given the evidence that daily ratings often failto support the retrospective reports of severity of premenstrual problems (Endicott & Halbreich, 1982), theyare also needed to assess the results of treatment or otherchanges over time. The prior experience of our group(Endicott et al., 1986; Schechter et al., 1989) and that ofothers (Moos et al., 1969) has indicated that women willreadily complete daily ratings of the severity of manyindividual items which describe specific types of symptoms and impairment. Such specificity of ratings canalso be of value in determining correlations of premenstrual changes (Halbreich et al., 1986).The Daily Record of Severity of Problems form(DRSP) was developed to aid clinicians in the assessment of the DSM-IV criteria for PMDD as well as toassess severity of symptoms and impairment at variousphases of the menstrual cycle. In order to enhance theassessment of the specific DSM-IV criteria for PMDD,the...