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Several symptom screening instruments have been developed to identify trauma survivors at risk for chronic posttraumatic stress disorder, but few of these have been thoroughly evaluated to date. In this study, a range of symptom combination scoring rules derived from the literature were applied to the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale and evaluated in 4 different samples of trauma survivors (total N = 522) regarding their power to identify people with posttraumatic stress disorder. Results were replicated in a fifth sample (N = 253). Most scoring rules showed lower diagnostic efficiencies than in the original reports. The most stable results were obtained for cutoffs on the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale total scale and a new subset of 8 items. The results underscore the need to cross-validate findings before using screening instruments for clinical applications.

Original publication

DOI

10.1097/NMD.0b013e31815c1999

Type

Journal article

Journal

J Nerv Ment Dis

Publication Date

12/2007

Volume

195

Pages

1004 - 1012

Keywords

Accidents, Traffic, Adult, Chronic Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Emergency Service, Hospital, Female, Humans, Male, Mass Screening, Middle Aged, Personality Assessment, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Factors, Sex Offenses, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Violence, Wounds and Injuries