Abstract
The authors evaluated the validity of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) subscale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the Impact of Event Scale (IES) and the Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90) as continuous and dichotomous measures of PTSD in a mixed military and civilian group of 70 subjects in the United Kingdom. The MMPI-PTSD and the IES are designed specifically as measures of PTSD and the Global Symptom Index of the SCL-90 is a general measure of neurosis. All measures produced significant positive correlations with scores from the Clinician Administered Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale (CAPS-1) and with each other. The IES was the most useful dichotomous measure. The optimum cut-off score for the IES producing the highest Positive Predictive Value and the lowest Apparent Total Misclassification Error Rate has been determined.
References
American Psychiatric Association (1987).Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (third edition, revised), Washington, DC, Author.
Blake, D. D., Weathers, F. W., Nagy, L. M., Kaloupek, D. G., Klauminzer, G., Charney, D. S., and Keane, T. M. (1990). A clinician rating scale for assessing current and lifetime PTSD: The CAPS-1.Behav. Ther. 13: 187–188.
Derogatis, L. R., Lipman, R. S., and Covi, L. (1973). SCL-90: An outpatient psychiatric rating scale - preliminary report.Psychopharmacol. Bull. 9: 13–28.
Hand, D. J. (1981).Discrimination and Classification Biometrics Unit, London University, Institute of Psychiatry, Wiley, New York.
Horowitz, M., Wilner, N., and Alvarez, W. (1979). Impact of Event Scale: A measure of subjective strss.Psychosom. Med. 41: 209–218.
Johnson, R. A., and Wichern, D. W. (1982).Applied Multivariate Analysis Prentice-Hall, NJ.
Keane, T. M., Malloy, P.F., and Fairbank, J. A. (1984). Empirical development of an MMPI subscale for the assessment of combat related post traumatic stress disorder.J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 52: 881–891.
McCaffrey, R. J., Hickling, E. J., and Marrazo, M. J. (1989). Civilian related post traumatic stress disorder: Assessment related issues.J. Clin. Psychol. 45: 72–75.
McFall, M. E., Smith, D. E., Roszell, D. K., Tarver, D. J., and Malas, K. L. (1990). Convergent validity of measures of PTSD in Vietnam combat veterans.Am. J. Psych. 147: 645–648.
O'Brien, L. S., and Hughes, S. J. (1991). Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in Falklands veterans five years after the conflict.Brit. J. Psych. 159: 135–141.
Orr, S. P., Clairborn, J. M., Altman, B., Forgue, D. F., De Jong, J. B., Pitman, R. K., and Herz, L. R. (1990). Psychometric profile of PTSD, anxious and healthy Vietnam veterans: Correlations with psychophysiologic responses.J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 58: 329–335.
Peveler, R. C., and Fairburn, C. G. (1990). Measurement of neurotic symptoms by self-report questionnaire: Validity of the SCL-90R.Psychol. Med. 20: 873–879.
Query, W. T., Megran, J., and McDonald, G. (1986). Applying post traumatic stress disorder MMPI Subscale to World War II POW veterans.J. Clin. Psychol. 42: 315–317.
Saunders, B. E., Arata, C. M., and Kilpatrick, D. G. (1990). Development of a crime related post traumatic stress disorder subscale for women with the Symptom Check List-90-revised.J. Traum. Stress 3(3): 439–449.
Schwarzwald, J., Solomon, Z., Weisenberg, M., and Mikulincer, M. (1987). Validation of the Impact of Event Scale for psychological sequelae of combat.J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 55: 251–256.
Watson, C. G. (1990). Psychometric post traumatic stress disorder measuring techniques: A review.Psychol. Asses. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 2: 460–469.
Weisenberg, M., Solomon, Z., Schwarzwald, J., and Mikulincer, M. (1987). Assessing post traumatic stress disorder: Relation between dichotomous and continuous measures.J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 55: 432–434.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
About this article
Cite this article
Neal, L.A., Busuttil, W., Rollins, J. et al. Convergent validity of measures of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in a mixed military and civilian population. J Trauma Stress 7, 447–455 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102789
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102789