The development of a Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Multiple interviews exist for assessing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
• These interviews differ significantly in psychometric properties and clinical utility.
• A need exists for a standardized, validated assessment tool for PTSD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties and utility of various PTSD assessment interviews.
• To identify the most suitable interview for consistent and accurate PTSD diagnosis.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of available PTSD assessment interviews based on psychometric and utility standards.
• Detailed examination of the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-1) structure and scoring.
• Review of data from a large-scale psychometric study of the CAPS-1.

Main Results:

• The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-1) demonstrated superior adherence to stringent psychometric and utility standards.
• CAPS-1 is a structured interview assessing core and associated PTSD symptoms using standardized prompts and rating scales.
• CAPS-1 provides reliable and valid continuous and dichotomous scores for current and lifetime PTSD.

Conclusions:

• The CAPS-1 is a highly reliable and valid instrument for PTSD assessment.
• Its structured format and explicit rating scales ensure consistent evaluation of PTSD symptoms.
• CAPS-1 is suitable for use by experienced clinicians and trained paraprofessionals.