Use of the Gottschalk-Gleser Verbal Content Analysis Scales with medically ill patients

Evaluation of the psychologic aspects of medical illness has been hampered by the lack of reliable and valid measures of mood state appropriate for the medically ill. The two most widely used procedures, self-report inventories and observer-report rating scales, have limitations in their use with medically ill patients. A less well-known method, the Gottschalk-Gleser Verbal Content Analysis Scales (G-G), is reviewed. Its method and scoring are outlined. Ten studies utilizing the G-G with medically ill patients are reviewed in detail. These studies demonstrate that the G-G is sensitive to pharmacologic-physiologic relationships, treatment effects, environmental effects, and psychologic factors related to specific disease states. In addition, the G-G appears to be particularly suitable for longitudinal studies. Use of the G-G with the medically ill appears to confirm clinical observations of pathologic degrees of mood state. The G-G is a versatile instrument that measures many mood states of considerable relevance to the medically ill.