What is the DRSP?
In plain words

3 min read · checked against its sources · updated 16 Oct 2026

The DRSP, short for Daily Record of Severity of Problems, is a form you fill in once a day to rate how bad your premenstrual symptoms are. Doctors use it to see whether your hard days follow your cycle, which is the pattern PMDD is judged on. It has 24 items, each rated from 1 (not at all) to 6 (extreme), and it is kept for at least two cycles.

Where it comes from

Jean Endicott and colleagues published the reliability and validity of the DRSP in 2006. It was built to help diagnose and evaluate PMDD. The paper found high test-retest reliability for single items and summary scores, and the scores were sensitive to change over time.

It is a record, not a verdict. It shows a pattern. A clinician still decides what the pattern means and rules out other causes.

What the 24 items are

A Japanese validation study describes the form as 21 symptom items plus 3 items about how much the symptoms get in the way of social life and daily activities. Each item is rated on the same six-point scale.

The symptom items cover mood (low mood, hopelessness, anxiety, mood swings, anger and irritability), interest in usual activities, concentration, energy, appetite, sleep, feeling overwhelmed or out of control, and physical symptoms such as bloating, breast tenderness and headaches. That is a summary, not the exact wording. For the official form, ask your doctor or use a clinic's copy.

Eight of the items are core mood items that match the mood symptoms the DSM-5 asks for in PMDD, according to the same study.

How to fill it in

Do it at about the same time each day, ideally in the evening, and rate the whole day. It takes a few minutes.

Keep going on your good days. A record that only has the bad days cannot show that things ease after your period starts, and that easing is half of the picture.

Start on any day, but note when your period begins. IAPMD says PMDD diagnosis requires tracking for at least two cycles, and the Lindner Center of Hope suggests at least two months of daily entries. Why doctors ask for two cycles explains the reasoning.

What the doctor looks for

Doctors compare the week before your period with the week after it starts. In PMDD, symptoms build in the days before bleeding and ease soon after. If they stay high all month, something else may be going on, or PMDD may be sitting on top of another condition. That is covered in PMDD or PME?.

If you cannot get the form

You can still bring a useful record. Our printable PMDD chart gives you a daily sheet. The symptoms checklist lists what to watch for, and preparing for a PMDD appointment covers what to say.

If your doctor asks for the DRSP by name, use the DRSP. A different diary will still help, but the standard form is what they know how to read.

Where Tideline fits

Tideline is not the DRSP and does not claim to replace it. It keeps a different kind of record: one sentence a day, typed or spoken, and after two cycles a report that sets the week before your period beside the week after, with your own words quoted. Some people find a sentence easier to keep up than 24 ratings. It is worth asking your doctor which they prefer.

Keep the record your doctor needs. Tideline is a period and mood tracker for iPhone: write one sentence a day, and after two cycles it puts the week before your period next to the week after it starts. Free to track, no account.
Get Tideline on the App Store

Keep reading

Sources

© 2026 Ben Jonas Goedeke · Tideline keeps a record. It does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition.