Table 2.

Items and operationalisation of the PSBS

Item	Operationalisation
Score	0 No impairment	1 Light impairment	2 Moderate impairment	3 High impairment	4 Severe impairment
1. Alertness	No impairment	Fatigue during the day	Occasional sleep cycles during the day	Mainly sleep cycles during the day	Somnolence
2. Confusion	No impairment	Patient feels too weak for temporal and local orientation	Temporary disorientation	Patient feels high impairment, depressive reaction	Severe confusion, helplessness
3. Restlessness/anxiety	No impairment	Occasional, patient can express the cause	Frequently, care needed	Despite medication, paroxysmal	Pronounced restlessness, panic, suicidal tendencies
4. Sweating	No impairment	Occasional, after activity	Attacks of sweating accompanied by dizziness	Pronounced sweating, laundry change needed	Persisting, quickly recurring sweating
5. Weakness	No impairment	Daily routine possible with great effort	Daily routine possible with great effort and periods of rest	Help needed for activities of daily living	Care-dependent
6. Nausea	No impairment	Temporary with loss of appetite	Occasional, but multiple times per day	High impairment, retching; emesis	Persisting nausea, for hours
7. Vomiting	No impairment	Occasional vomiting after medication or ingestion	Spontaneous vomiting	Multiple vomiting (per stint)	Excruciating vomiting with persistent nausea
8. Dyspnoea	No impairment	Dyspnoea on exertion	Dyspnoea on slight exertion	Dyspnoea at rest	Paroxysmal dyspnoea anxiety, medication needed
9. Coughing	No impairment	Productive cough	Dry cough	Persisting cough	Excruciating cough, pain, fear of suffocation
10. Itching	No impairment	Occasional	Slight itching	Excruciating itching; medication needed	Excruciating itch despite medication
11. Pain	Severity 1–2	Severity 3–4	Severity 5–6	Severity 7–8	Severity 9–10
12. Constipationa	No	Yes	--	--	--

^aConstipation was excluded from the analyses