Use "\return" as "\brief" - doxygen

Question

For very simple functions I would like to only have a \return section, but still show it as brief. (How) Can this be done?
For example:
/**
\return The distance.
*/
template <typename R = int64_t>
R distance(const pcg32 &other);
this generates no \brief in the docs, whereas e.g. this does:
/**
Multi-step advance function (jump-ahead, jump-back).
\param distance the distance.
*/
template <typename T>
void advance(T distance);
See this screenshot:

Answer 1

I believe that the brief section is meant to hold single paragraphs, while the \return command actually generates a header along with a paragraph.
In order to avoid changing any global REPEAT_BRIEF settings, I'd suggest a simple macro to be used for this case, e.g.,
Add the following to the doxygen ALIASES configuration:
"briefreturn=**Returns** "
Use in your description comment like so:
/** \briefreturn the value that it returns */
int foo();
This would give you a one-line brief that is similar to the multi-line output from \return.
Modifying the macro, you can achieve other behaviors as desired, e.g., forcing generation of a details section, even when no other details supplied but the return:
"briefreturn{1}=**Returns** \1 \details. "
This can still be followed by details in the normal manner. Note that will have a leading ".", though. (Perhaps some other non-whitespace character can be used instead that is less offensive as a leading sentence character)