Screening and assessment tools worth knowing

Screening (generalist and primary care)

• PC-PTSD-5: five yes/no items, cutoff at 3, free. Ideal for triage and primary care settings.
• SPAN: four items derived from the Davidson Trauma Scale — quick, reasonable sensitivity.
• Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ): ten items, well-validated for post-incident screening.

Diagnosis and severity (DSM-5)

• CAPS-5: gold-standard structured interview, 45 to 60 minutes, requires training, produces defensible diagnoses.
• PCL-5: 20-item self-report mapped to DSM-5 clusters. Well suited to progress monitoring across sessions and to research.
• SCID-5 PTSD module: structured clinical interview, appropriate when a broader differential is in play.

ICD-11 complex trauma

The International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) maps directly onto ICD-11 PTSD and C-PTSD criteria, is free for clinical use, and is short enough for repeated administration. It is the practical default for clinicians working in the ICD-11 framework.

Dissociation

• DES-II: 28 items, adequate for screening; the taxon subscale flags likely dissociative disorders for further assessment.
• MID (Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation): 218 items, dense but rich, appropriate when the clinical question warrants it.
• SCID-D: structured interview for dissociative disorders, considered the diagnostic standard.

Contextual and adverse-experience measures

• LEC-5: life-events checklist, used alongside CAPS-5 and PCL-5 to establish criterion A.
• ACEs questionnaire: useful for formulation and psychoeducation; not a diagnostic instrument.
• Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ): broader lifetime trauma survey.

Using tools well

No instrument replaces clinical judgment. Use screeners to open a conversation, diagnostic tools to structure it, and repeat administration to track change. In high-stakes decisions — forensic, medicolegal, custody — no single tool should stand alone.