THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-RATING INVENTORY FOR POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER

In this study a newly developed Self-rating Inventory for Posttraumati c Stress Disorder (PTSD) is presented. The instrument consists of 47 i tems, reflecting DSM-III-R criteria, associated features and items cor responding to the disorder of extreme stress not otherwise specified. All items are phrased in a trauma-independent way and are measured on an intensity scale. The instrument was validated on 76 subjects with w ar-related trauma and 59 psychiatric outpatients, one third of whom we re traumatized. Test-retest for the scale was 0.90. The coefficient al pha appeared to be 0.96 for the 47-items scale and 0.92 for the 22 DSM -III-R subscale. The scale correlated significantly with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, the Mississippi Scale for Combat-related PTS D, the MMPI PTSD subscale and the Impact of Event Scale. The overall e fficiency of the Self-rating Inventory for PTSD was comparable to the overall efficiency of the Mississippi Scale and superior to the MMPI P TSD subscale. Factor analysis on the 22 DSM-III-R items showed 4 facto rs, representing numbing, intrusion, avoidance and sleeping problems. It is concluded that the Self-rating Inventory for PTSD is a powerful instrument for diagnosing PTSD in survey research. The instrument appe ars to be capable of differentiating not only between PTSD and non-PTS D subjects but also between traumatized non-PTSD subjects and non-trau matized psychiatric patients.