[A comparison of four symptom lists (author's transl)]

At present there are four lists of symptoms in German (BL, FBL, BFB, KASSL) for which sufficient empirical data permit an evaluation. The BL, FBL, and BFB lists relate to items of the physiologic and physiologic/psychic fields, whereas the items of the KASSL refer more to psychic problems. With all four procedures the computation of global scores is justified by factor and item analyses, although the results of the BFB are least satisfactory. Information about reliability exists for all lists and point to favorable formal characteristics, i.e., symptom scores permit reliable assessment. The importance of symptom configurations is still ambiguous and needs further investigation. Measuring change with the four lists is a problem which is unsolved and needs further reflection. Because of its broad basis of test information the BL global score is recommended for use.