Daily ratings of symptoms are essential to confirm a diagnosis of prem
enstrual syndrome (PMS). The 17-item Daily Symptom Report (DSR) is rel
atively brief and appropriate for clinical and primary care settings.
We report the reliability, factor structure and relationships with oth
er standard mood measures of the DSR as a measure of PMS. The sample i
ncludes 170 women who sought medical treatment for severe PMS and a no
n-clinical comparison group of 54 healthy women in the same age range.
Cronbach's coefficient alpha was 0.92 for the premenstrual DSR scores
, indicating very high internal consistency for the 17 symptoms. Facto
r analysis yielded four factors describing mood, behavioral items, pai
n, and physical symptoms. In the PMS sample, there were moderate corre
lations between the DSR and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression,
the Profile of Mood States, and the Premenstrual Assessment Form. The
moderate correlations of the DSR with other standard symptom measures
add to the evidence that PMS overlaps with other mood disorders at the
premenstrual time but is not simply a brief depression or a truncated
anxiety disorder. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.