Distress Thermometer: Measuring Emotional Distress
The Distress Thermometer helps cancer patients rate their emotional stress on a simple scale. It allows healthcare teams to quickly identify who needs extra support and pinpoint specific concerns.
Distress Thermometer
Widely used in oncology, the Distress Thermometer is a visual scale rated 0 to 10 that measures emotional stress. It helps clinicians quickly identify patients needing psychosocial support. Often paired with a problem list, this simple tool ensures mental wellbeing is prioritised alongside physical care.
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What is Distress Thermometer
The Distress Thermometer (DT) is a trusted screening tool that helps clinicians spot emotional strain in people living with cancer. It’s simple yet highly effective. This single-item measure looks a fair bit like a standard pain scale. It pairs a visual graphic with a detailed problem list to pinpoint specific stressors. Patients rate their overall distress from zero for no distress to ten for extreme distress. They also tick boxes across five key areas covering practical, family, emotional, spiritual, and physical concerns to show exactly what’s bothering them most. It’s super quick to fill out in busy clinics or hospital wards. Doctors and nurses use the results to start important chats about mental health and decide if a referral to a counsellor is needed. It really helps care teams focus on the whole person and plan better support for the road ahead.
The Distress Thermometer can be scored using one main approach: a single item visual rating scale. Patients circle a number from 0, meaning no distress, to 10, indicating extreme distress, on a picture of a thermometer. Clinicians use a score of 4 or higher as the standard cut off point to flag clinically relevant distress. This score signals that a patient needs a referral to psychosocial services or a good chat about their coping. While the main score comes from the thermometer, the tool also includes a Yes or No problem list to identify specific practical, family, or physical issues.
Advantages
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Streamlines research data gathering process.
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Promotes active participation in healthcare assessment.
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Meets international clinical assessment requirements.
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