Measures of Traumatic Experiences, PTSD Symptoms, and PTSD Diagnosis

Measures of Traumatic Experiences, PTSD Symptoms, and PTSD Diagnosis – scroll horizontally if needed.
Measures of Traumatic Experiences, PTSD Symptoms, and PTSD Diagnosis
Measure	Description	# Items	Time to complete	Self-report or clinician administered?	Scoring	Considerations in choosing a measure
Identifying Traumatic Experiences
Life Events Checklist for DSM-5⁷ (LEC-5)	Screens for the experience of events known to potentially result in PTSD or trauma-related distress	17	5 min	Patient self-report	N/A	Identifies the number and type of traumatic events; does not assess posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms or provide diagnosis
Assessing PTSD Symptoms
Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5⁸ (PC-PTSD-5)	Begins with question that assesses whether patient has ever experienced a traumatic event. For patients who answer “yes”, five additional yes/no questions assess how trauma has affected them over the past month.	5	< 5 min	Patient self-report	Scores range from 0-5 (count of “yes” symptom responses); cut-point of 4 recommended	Brief, designed for use in primary care settings, broad screen of symptoms to determine whether patient would benefit from more thorough & focused PTSD diagnostic assessment
Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5⁹ (PDS-5)	Consistent with DSM-5 criteria, assesses past-month PTSD symptom severity related to traumatic experience that currently bothers the patient the most.	24	10–15 min	Patient self-report	Add scores for each of 20 symptom items (range 0–80); cut-point of 28 recommended for probable PTSD diagnosis	Used for screening individuals for PTSD, monitoring symptom change, and making a provisional diagnosis†
PTSD Checklist for DSM-5¹⁰ (PCL-5)	Assesses the 20 DSM-5 symptoms of PTSD related to traumatic experience that currently bothers the patient most.	20	5–10 min	Patient self-report	Add scores for each of 20 items (range 0–80); cut-point of 31–33 recommended for probable PTSD diagnosis	Used for screening individuals for PTSD, monitoring symptom change, and making a provisional diagnosis†
Diagnosing PTSD
Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5¹¹ (CAPS-5)*	Structured interview of past-month frequency and intensity of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms, the onset and duration of symptoms, subjective distress, the impact of symptoms on social and occupational functioning, change in symptoms over time, overall PTSD severity, and dissociative symptoms	30	45–60 min	Clinician-administered	Total severity score obtained by adding scores for each of 20 symptom ratings. In addition to exposure to a traumatic event, PTSD diagnosis requires at least 1 intrusion symptom, 1 avoidance symptom, 2 cognition and mood symptoms, 2 arousal symptoms persisting for > 1 month, and the presence of clinically significant distress or interference, defined as a score of 2 or higher on relevant items.	Gold-standard in PTSD assessment. Allows clinicians to make a PTSD diagnosis using DSM-5 criteria. If you are interested in completing the training curriculum for the CAPS-5, click here. Access to this course is restricted to individuals with at least a master’s degree in a clinical discipline, or with research credentials. Non-VA users must email ncptsd.assessment@va.gov to request a code to access the course.
PTSD Symptom Scale Interview¹² (PSSI-5)*	Semi-structured interview of past-month frequency and intensity of the 20 DSM-5 PTSD symptoms, distress and interference caused by PTSD symptoms as well as their onset and duration	24	20 min	Clinician-administered	Add scores for each of 20 symptom ratings for symptom severity score. Consistent with the DSM-5, in addition to exposure to a traumatic event, a PTSD diagnosis requires the presence of at least 1 intrusion symptom, 1 avoidance symptom, 2 cognition and mood symptoms, 2 arousal symptoms persisting for > 1 month, and the presence of clinically significant distress or interference, defined as a score of 2 or higher on relevant items. Manual for administration and scoring can be requested by contacting Dr. Edna Foa: foa@pennmedicine.upenn.edu	Allows clinicians to make a diagnostic determination using DSM-5 criteria.
*Please note that these measures are intended for use by qualified mental health professionals and researchers who have training in structured clinical interviewing and differential diagnosis, a good understanding of PTSD and its symptoms, and familiarity with the assessment measures and their conventions. †The gold standard for diagnosing PTSD is a structured clinical interview such as the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5). When necessary, the PCL-5 or PDS-5 can be scored to provide a provisional PTSD diagnosis.