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The utility of the SCL‐90‐R for the diagnosis of war‐zone related posttraumatic stress disorder
Author(s) -
Weathers Frank W.,
Litz Brett T.,
Keane Terence M.,
Herman Debra S.,
Steinberg Howard R.,
Huska Jennifer A.,
Kraemer Helena C.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.2490090110
Subject(s) - posttraumatic stress , distress , psychology , scale (ratio) , checklist , psychometrics , internal consistency , psychiatry , anxiety disorder , clinical psychology , test validity , anxiety , cartography , cognitive psychology , geography
A scale for assessing war‐zone‐related posttraumatic stress disorder (WZ‐PTSD scale) was derived from the Symptom Checklist‐90‐R by identifying items that best discriminated Vietnam theater veterans with and without PTSD ( N = 202). The 25‐item WZ‐PTSD scale had excellent internal consistency, and signal detection analyses revealed that its diagnostic utility was comparable to or exceeded that of several established PTSD scales and measures of global distress. In a cross‐validation sample ( N = 99), the diagnostic utility of the WZ‐PTSD scale was stable, whereas other PTSD scales performed more poorly. The WZ‐PTSD scale appears to be a valuable new measure of PTSD that can be particularly useful in archival data sets or in any situation where other PTSD measures are not available.