The clinical utility of the Distress Thermometer: a review

Abstract

The Distress Thermometer (DT) is a well validated screening tool, demonstrably sensitive and reasonably specific to the construct of distress in cancer. Its brevity makes it ideal to incorporate into a system of distress management. To ascertain how far this idea has been developed in practice, and to support future research, a literature review was undertaken. Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, ASSIA, British Nursing Index, AMED, CCTR, and HMIC were systematically searched. Forty studies were reviewed that examined the function of the DT alone, together with the problem list (PL), and/or other validated measures. The majority of studies validated the DT against other robust measures of distress in order to establish 'caseness' in these populations, and establish factors associated with distress. Many of the studies recommended that further research should test their findings in clinical practice. A small section of the literature focused on the clinical utility of the DT as a facilitator of consultations, and found it to have potential in this regard. It is concluded that there is enough validation research, and in line with the majority of these studies' recommendations, future research should focus on the utility of DT as part of a structured distress management programme.

Can the distress thermometer (DT) identify significant psychological distress in long-term cancer survivors?: a comparison with the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18)

“…Studies of the DT with cancer patients, rather than longterm survivors, have reported favorably on its psychometric properties when compared to more conventional psychological checklist measures and generally concluded that it is a clinically useful screening measure (see Snowden et al [23] for review). Several previous studies in cancer patients have reported much higher sensitivities for the DT than what we found here (e.g., 80%) [12], with even higher sensitivity being reported in a study of cancer patients' caregivers [13].…”

Posttraumatic growth and adjustment to spinal cord injury: Moderated by posttraumatic depreciation?

“…The DT is a widely used and extensively validated screening instrument to assess distress caused by specific health conditions (Snowden et al, 2011). The recommended cut-off indicating clinically relevant levels of global distress is a score of 4 (Snowden et al, 2011).…”

“…The recommended cut-off indicating clinically relevant levels of global distress is a score of 4 (Snowden et al, 2011).…”

Short-stay, specialist beds in a UK teaching hospital as a model to integrate palliative care into the acute hospital culture

“…We prospectively collected the following data: Palliative Performance Status (PPS) 32 and Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI) 33 on admission; daily Edmonton Symptom Assessment Score (ESAS) [34][35][36] and distress score 37 ; documentation of disciplines considered essential for patients to see; date family meeting achieved, likely outcome (on admission) and patient, family and staff satisfaction levels.…”