Panic Disorder Severity Scale for Children

A psychometric evaluation of the Panic Disorder Severity Scale for children and adolescents.

“…As previously noted, the 7-item self-report Panic Disorder Severity Scale for Children (PDSS-C) was adapted for youth ages 11-17 by Pincus and colleagues (Pincus et al, 2004) from the 7-item adult self-report PDSS-SR (Houck et al, 2002) which itself was a self-report adaptation of the clinician-administered adult PDSS (Shear et al, 1997). As in the adult PDSS, the seven items of the PDSS-C were designed to assess: (1) panic frequency, (2) distress associated with panic attacks, (3) severity of anticipatory anxiety, (4) agoraphobia and avoidance, (5) fear associated with the physical symptoms that accompany panic attacks, and (6) work and (7) social impairments related to the disorder.…”

“…Importantly, several items from the adult PDSS may not be relevant to child populations (e.g., items about work or sexual activity), and key life domains of adolescence, such as school, are not assessed. To afford a developmentally sensitive, brief assessment of panic severity for use with adolescent populations, Pincus and colleagues adapted the traditional PDSS-SR for youth ages 11 to 17 (PDSS-Child Version; PDSS-C; Pincus, Spiegel, & Mattis, 2004) and used the measure as a self-administered primary outcome measure of panic severity at baseline, post-treatment, and follow-up evaluations in several adolescent PDA clinical trials (Pincus, May, Whitton, Mattis, & Barlow, 2010; Pincus et al, 2013). Items on the PDSS-C are functionally parallel to the PDSS, with the exception of item word changes to maximize appropriateness for the target youth audience.…”