Clinical Utility of a Brief Diagnostic Test for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the psychometric properties and clinical utility of a brief diagnostic instrument known as the Self-Rating Scale for PTSD (SRS-PTSD). METHOD: The scale was applied to a sample of 136 survivors of a plane crash. We designed SRS-PTSD as an abridged version of the Structured Interview for PTSD (SI-PTSD), which measures the presence and severity of PTSD symptoms from both a current and a lifetime perspective. RESULTS: The results indicate that SRS-PTSD and SI-PTSD both show satisfactory internal consistency and interjudge reliability. Furthermore, SRS-PTSD was shown to have sufficient sensitivity and specificity and an adequate likelihood ratio. CONCLUSIONS: SRS-PTSD constitutes a good alternative for SI-PTSD, especially for sites with limited clinical resources.