Resources for Clinicians

Adult Interviews

Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale
(CAPS)

The CAPS is widely considered to be the "gold standard" in PTSD assessment. It provides a categorical diagnosis, as well as a measure of the severity of PTSD symptoms. The CAPS are available in English, Chinese, Spanish, and Bosnian.

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Acute Stress Disorder Interview
(ASDI)

The ASDI is a structured interview for diagnosing Acute Stress Disorder and vulnerability to PTSD. It has 19 items based on the DSM-IV criterion.

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Posttraumatic Sympton Scale - Interview Version (PSS-I)

The PSS-I is a widely utilized PTSD measure administered by an interviewer. It is a semi-structured interview providing a categorical diagnosis, as well as a measure of the severity of PTSD symptoms as defined by DSM-IV.

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Adult Self-Report Instruments

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist
(PCL)

The PCL is a 17-item self-report scale for PTSD. There are slightly different versions for use with military and civilian populations, as well as for adults after a "specific stressful experience". The PCL is available in English, Chinese, Spanish, and Bosnian.

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Acute Stress Disorder Scale
(ASDS)

The ASDS is a 19-item self report scale for Acute Stress Disorder symptoms. It is a self-report version of the ADSI interview (above)

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Child Interviews

CAPS-CA

The CAPS-CA is a 33-item clinician-administered PTSD interview for youths aged 8 to 18 years. It is a modified version of the adult CAPS.

Items were modified to make them age appropriate and picture response options were added.Practice questions help familiarize children with the assessment. The Life Events Checklist is used to identify traumatic events.

CAPS-CA is a structured interview providing a categorical diagnosis, as well as a measure of the severity of PTSD symptoms as defined by DSM-IV. It can be administered by any trained person and takes 30-60 minutes.

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Child Self Report Instruments

UCLA PTSD Scale

This instrument assesses reactions to trauma in children and adolescents. It can be used in standard self-report format or administered verbally (with questions read to the child). A parent version obtains their perception of the child's reactions.

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Acute Stress Checklist for Children
(ASC-Kids)

The ASC-Kids is a brief self report measure of acute traumatic stress reactions (including ASD diagnostic criteria) in children and adolescents aged 8-17. It has 29 items relating to the ASD diagnostic criteria and associated features.

Child PTSD Symptom Scale
(CPSS)

The CPSS is used to measure post traumatic stress disorder severity in children aged 8-18. It is made up of 17 items in part 1 and 7 items in part 2. It takes approximately 20 minutes to administer as an interview measure (by a clinician or a therapist) and 10 minutes to complete as a self-report.Versions are available in English and Spanish.

Reactions to Research Participation Questionnaires for Children and Parents
(RRPQ-C and RRPQ-P)

These instruments assess the effect of clinical research studies on child and parent participants. They are short questionnaires that may be used as a basis for the ethical conduct of research.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Acute Stress Disorder (CBT for ASD)

This clinician's resource comprises a treatment manual for Acute Stress Disorder (ASD).

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Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

This clinician's resource comprises a CPT manual for the treatment of PTSD. Although this version is targeted specifically at military and veteran populations, the procedures are equally applicable to other traumatized groups (see Resick and Schnicke, 1993).

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Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Children (TF-CBT)

This clinician's resource is a link to a free on-line training course for Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

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