The Assessment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder with an Australian Vietnam Veteran Population: Preliminary Findings with Two New Instruments

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Preliminary data are provided on two new instruments in the field of traumatic stress, namely the Penn Inventory and the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) module of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). The Penn Inventory is a 26-item self-report scale developed for use with a range of trauma populations. The CIDI-PTSD is a draft module currently being trialed and eventually to be included in the full version of the CIDI interview. Participants comprised 30 Australian Vietnam combat veterans, who also completed the Impact of Event Scale and the Mississippi Scale for PTSD (M-PTSD). The Penn Inventory demonstrated good congruent validity and was comparable to the M-PTSD in diagnostic accuracy. Both scales tended to overdiagnose. The CIDI-PTSD performed disappointingly, showing relatively low sensitivity and specificity. Implications for the appropriate use of these instruments are discussed.