Do you want to assess traumatic experiences, PTSD symptoms or PTSD diagnosis?
The purpose of a trauma experience measure such as the LEC-5 is to identify what traumatic events an individual has experienced.
In contrast, the other PTSD measures (above) may be used to determine whether the person has PTSD symptoms related to one of the identified traumatic events, the severity of symptoms, or whether the person has a diagnosis of PTSD. We have provided a range of measures. Some are broad enough to include symptoms other than those related to PTSD (e.g., PC-PTSD-5, PDS-5, PCL-5). However, we have also provided PTSD measures that are more focused on the PTSD symptoms needed to make a diagnosis using the DSM-5 (e.g., PSSI-5, CAPS-5). Broad measures may be used as screeners to make a determination whether a patient would benefit from more thorough and focused measures.
How much time can you allocate to assessment?
The provided assessment measures differ in length and format of administration. For example, the PCL-5 is a brief self-report measure that provides a single rating for each item, whereas the CAPS-5 is a structured interview with detailed inquiries about each symptom and interviewer ratings regarding the validity of reports.
Although structured interviews require more interviewer training and administration time, they result in a more comprehensive and reliable assessment of PTSD.
What is your goal?
There is no single “best” trauma or PTSD symptom measure. The right measure depends on your goal. If you want a quick screen, we recommend self-report measures (PC-PTSD-5, PDS-5, PCL-5). However, if you are a mental health provider and your aim is to provide a DSM diagnosis, you may want to use a structured clinical interview that assesses for frequency and severity of symptoms (PSSI-5, CAPS-5). Before deciding on a measure, you may need to consider the time and training required to administer the measure, whether you need to assess symptoms related to a single traumatic event or multiple traumatic events (or to assess symptoms when the trauma history is unknown), and whether the measure needs to correspond to DSM criteria for PTSD.
For making a diagnosis of PTSD rather than simply assessing PTSD symptoms, structured interviews will generally yield more valid results than other types of measures. However, it is worth noting that the validity of a structured interview will be greatly affected by the level of training of the interviewer. If interviewers are not familiar with mental health disorders, clinical assessment, and traumatic stress, and are not trained in the administration of the particular structured interview being used, results of the interview may be invalid. Brief scales and self-report measures cannot be used to establish a diagnosis of PTSD because there is too much chance for error in responses.