MIDAS Project Publication Abstracts
Sheeran, T., Zimmerman, M. Screening for posttraumatic
stress disorder in a general psychiatric outpatient setting. Journal
of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2002, 70, 961-966.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is now viewed as a disorder
that may affect survivors of a number of different accidents and
illnesses besides violence victims and combat veterans. Findings
from this and other sites suggest PTSD may be underdiagnosed in
settings where trauma is not the presenting problem. Thus, a PTSD
screening scale might have utility in routine clinical settings.
The goal of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance
of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PTDS) in a general psychiatric
setting. Results indicate that the PTDS performed as well in a general
psychiatric outpatient setting as it did in the validation studies
conducted with trauma-focused samples. A simple cut-off score was
adequate for case identification. There were no gender effects and
the scale appeared to perform equally well among patients with,
versus without, a depressive diagnosis. The scale was as sensitive
to detecting PTSD cases when it was not the primary reason for presenting
for treatment as it was in detecting cases when PTSD was the primary
complaint.
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