Self-reported outcome measures for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder: towards recommendations for clinical practice

ABSTRACT Background The 2018 Phoenix Australia Clinical Practice Guidelines for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) recommended that practitioners use validated, user-friendly self-report measures for PTSD in their practice. However, selecting which measure to use can be difficult as there are currently no guidelines for selection. This research sought to evaluate self-report outcome measures for adults with PTSD and produce recommendations to guide clinicians. Method A systematic search was use qd to identify relevant articles and a comprehensive list of the existing measures of PTSD symptoms were extracted. A second search for validation papers for these measures was then conducted. Using these validation papers, measures were evaluated for their psychometric properties and utility for clinical practice via a purpose-built evaluation tool. Findings Twenty-two self-report outcome measures for PTSD were extracted from 256 randomised controlled trials. For these measures, 110 validation papers were located. For nonspecific trauma exposure populations, the PCL-5 and SPRINT were found to be the most psychometrically valid measures, with the highest scoring clinical utility. The measures for 12 specific trauma exposure populations were examined and discussed. Conclusion This paper has direct clinical relevance for working with individuals with PTSD and provides researchers and clinicians with justification for outcome measure selection. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: It is recommended that clinicians use validated, user-friendly self-report measures to support their assessments of treatment outcomes over time for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Clinicians may struggle to select which measure to use in their practice when faced with a plethora of choice regarding outcome measures for PTSD, especially given the impact of the DSM-5 update. The differences between measures which are utilised frequently (i.e. ‘common’ measures) and measures with good psychometric properties (i.e. validated measures) and those with good clinical utility (i.e. usability) can be difficult to understand What this topic adds: This paper used systematic review methodology was used to identify & evaluate a comprehensive list of self-report outcome measures for PTSD since the DSM-5 update in 2013 and the populations that they should be used with. For non-specific trauma exposure populations, the PCL-5 and SPRINT were found to be the most psychometrically valid measures, with the highest scoring clinical utility. The most psychometrically valid measures, with the highest scoring clinical utility for twelve specific trauma exposure populations are also presented.