Citation

Holliday R, Smith J, North C, Surís A. Behav. Sci. (Basel) 2015; 5(1): 59-69.

Affiliation

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75390, USA. alina.suris@va.gov.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/bs5010059

PMID

25654696

PMCID

PMC4384063

Abstract

The widely used posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Checklist (PCL) has established reliability and validity, but it does not differentiate posttraumatic symptom frequency from intensity as elements of posttraumatic symptom severity. Thus, the PCL in its existing form may not provide a comprehensive appraisal of posttraumatic symptomatology. Because of this, we modified the PCL to create the PCL-I/F that measures both frequency and intensity of PTSD symptoms via brief self-report. To establish validity and internal consistency of the PCL-I/F, we conducted a pilot study comparing PCL-I/F scores to structured diagnostic interview for PTSD (the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale [CAPS]) in a male combat veteran sample of 92 participants. Statistically significant correlations between the PCL-I/F and the CAPS were found, suggesting initial validation of the PCL-I/F to screen and assess frequency and intensity of combat-related PTSD symptoms. Implications are discussed for screening and assessment of PTSD related to combat and non-combat trauma.

Language: en