Assessing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and PTSD Symptomatology in U. S. Army Personnel

Abstract

This poster presentation reports on selected findings from a large- scale survey study of U.S. Army Gulf War veterans, showing that combat exposure is related to PTSD caseness for substantial numbers of soldiers. In defining PTSD, the diagnostic algorithm contained in DSM3-R was followed, using appropriate self-reported symptoms from two scales in the soldier survey. While this PTSD scale was adequate to the purpose, some of the items were less than exact matches to the DSM3-R listed symptoms. For future work, a more precise set to DSM3-R (and now, DSMIV) based items are needed. A review of relevant studies shows that DSM-based PTSD checklists perform very well compared to other self report measures (e.g., Mississippi Scale) in identifying clinically diagnosed cases, and in terms of sensitivity and specificity. A team of researchers at the US Army Medical Research Unit-Europe has developed a new PTSD checklist and scoring procedures for use in future soldier studies. The scale is presented along with recommendations for its use.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 11, 1994
Accession Number
ADA285941

Entities

People

  • A. B. Adler
  • Mark A. Vaitkus
  • Paul Bartone

Organizations

  • Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Army Personnel
  • Biomedical Research
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Governments
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Mississippi
  • National Governments
  • Sensitivity
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Mental Health of Military Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Risk Factors, Prevalence, Symptoms, and Treatment.