title: Screening for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: an evaluation of two self-report scales among crime victims.
abstract: The validity of the Impact of Events Scale (IES) and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptom Scale, Self-Report version (PSS-SR) was examined among crime victims. Both instruments performed well as screeners for PTSD. For the IES, sensitivity ranged between .93 and 1.00; for the PSS-SR, sensitivity ranged between .80 and .90. Specificity for the IES ranged between .78 and .84 and for the PSS-SR ranged between .84 and .88. Some individual items from the 2 scales performed just as well as the total scales. The authors conclude that either of these short self-report instruments or their individual items are suitable as screeners for PTSD, specifically in settings where mental health professionals are unavailable. Cross-validation of these results is necessary because of the small sample size in this study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Free University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. t.wohlfarth@planet.nl
authors.forename: Tamar D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Wohlfarth
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: van den Brink
authors.forename: Frans Willem
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Winkel
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: ter Smitten
mesh_terms: D003415:Crime; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*