The depression adjective checklists (DACL) were developed in order to fill the need for an instrument with which to measure transient depressive mood, feeling, or emotion. Instruments are available for the measurement of more chronic, enduring depression.1,4 There are many occasions, however, when an economically administered, reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of transient depressive mood, feeling, or emotion is essential. The need for such an instrument arose when designing an investigation of mood changes during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Therefore, the first itemanalysis was conducted on female criterion groups and the derived lists were crossvalidated on both sexes. With the possibility of culturally-conditioned sex differences in self-report in mind, a separate item-analysis was conducted on male criterion groups and the derived lists were crossvalidated on both sexes. Of the several forms of instruments that have been developed