The validation of a self-report measure of posttraumatic stress disorder: The Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale.

TLDR

The study develops and validates the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PTDS), a self‑report instrument that provides DSM‑IV PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity. The PTDS was administered to 248 trauma‑exposed participants alongside the SCID and other psychopathology scales to assess its psychometric properties. The PTDS showed excellent internal consistency, test‑retest reliability, diagnostic agreement with the SCID, high sensitivity and specificity, and strong correlations with related measures, confirming its usefulness for screening and assessment.

Abstract

The present article reports on the development and validation of a self-report measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PTDS), that yields both a PTSD diagnosis according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994; DSM-IV) criteria and a measure of PTSD symptom severity. Two-hundred forty-eight participants who had experienced a wide variety of traumas (e.g., accident, fire, natural disaster, assault, combat) were administered the PTSD module of the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID; Spitzer, Williams, Gibbons, & First, 1990), the PTDS, and scales measuring trauma-related psychopathology. The PTDS demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability, high diagnostic agreement with SCID, and good sensitivity and specificity. The satisfactory validity of the PTDS was further supported by its high correlations with other measures of trauma-related psychopathology. Therefore, the PTDS appears to be a useful tool for screening and assessing current PTSD in clinical and research settings.