TY - JOUR PY - 1999// TI - Effects of varying scoring rules of the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) for the diagnosis of PTSD after acute burn injury JO - Journal of Traumatic Stress A1 - Fleming, M. P. A1 - Difede, J. SP - 535 EP - 542 VL - 12 IS - 3 N2 - The Clinician Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Scale (CAPS) enables quantification of the severity of each of the 17 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Blanchard and colleagues (1995) have documented variation in rates of PTSD among survivors of motor vehicle accidents depending on the CAPS scoring rule used. This report examines the effects of varying the scoring rules of the CAPS on rates of acute PTSD symptoms in hospitalized burn patients. Changing from the most liberal to the most conservative scoring rule resulted in a change in diagnosis of acute PTSD from 25% of 32% of the sample. The variation documented in this study and others has implications for a range of issues, including rates of PTSD in epidemiological studies, treatment outcome research, and forensic evaluations.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0894-9867 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1024727306168 ID - ref1 ER -