title: Phenomenology and psychological assessment of complex posttraumatic states.
abstract: The authors offer a framework for the assessment of psychological responses associated with exposure to early onset, multiple, or extended traumatic stressors. Six prominent and overlapping symptoms clusters are described: altered self-capacities, cognitive symptoms, mood disturbance, overdeveloped avoidance responses, somatoform distress, and posttraumatic stress. A strategy for the structured, psychometrically valid assessment of these outcomes is introduced, and specific recommendations for use of various generic and trauma-specific child and adult measures are provided. Implications of trauma assessment for treatment planning are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA. jbriere@usc.edu
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Briere
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spinazzola
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011594:Psychometrics; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology