Enhancing self‐report assessment of PTSD: Development of an item bank

Abstract

The authors report results of work to enhance self-report posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) assessment by developing an item bank for use in a computer-adapted test. Computer-adapted tests have great potential to decrease the burden of PTSD assessment and outcomes monitoring. The authors conducted a systematic literature review of PTSD instruments, created a database of items, performed qualitative review and readability analysis, and conducted cognitive interviews with veterans diagnosed with PTSD. The systematic review yielded 480 studies in which 41 PTSD instruments comprising 993 items met inclusion criteria. The final PTSD item bank includes 104 items representing each of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994), PTSD symptom clusters (reexperiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal), and 3 additional subdomains (depersonalization, guilt, and sexual problems) that expanded the assessment item pool.

Posttraumatic stress following spinal cord injury: a systematic review of risk and vulnerability factors

“…Third, the majority of the data were self-reports, which are prone to recall, confounding and sample selection biases. 86 Notably, individual effect sizes did not markedly differ across individual PTSD measures. This included similar effect estimates produced with the original and revised Impact of Event Scale, despite the former's two symptom (that is, intrusion, avoidance) cluster conceptualisation of PTSD, which no longer matches DSM diagnostic criteria.…”

Is DSM‐IV criterion A2 associated with PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity?

“…Third, we measured PTSD symptom severity with a nonstandardized instrument. All of the items, however, were drawn from more than 40 standardized instruments assessing PTSD symptoms (Del Vecchio et al, 2011). Fourth, PTSD diagnosis was not directly assessed through current or past symptoms, although we tried to obtain as accurate information about this as possible by asking if a doctor had ever told the veteran that he or she had a diagnosis of PTSD (a question that has been used in prior research), rather than requesting the respondent's own assessment of his or her PTSD status.…”

“…PTSD symptoms. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity was assessed using 89 items created to develop a computer-adapted test for PTSD (Del Vecchio, Elwy, Smith, Bottonari, & Eisen, 2011). This item bank was developed through a systematic review of existing PTSD instruments, qualitative review of items, and cognitive interviews with veterans diagnosed with PTSD to ensure that the items were appropriately understood.…”

Is Helplessness Still Helpful in Diagnosing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

“…The participants were queried about a diagnosis of PTSD by a doctor and were screened using the PTSD module of the SCID . In addition, veterans were asked to describe the severity of their symptoms on an 89-item computer-adapted test for PTSD (Del Vecchio et al, 2011). Of the sample, 7.8% of the respondents had been formally diagnosed with PTSD.…”