An Empirical Crosswalk for the PTSD Checklist: Translating DSM ‐IV to DSM‐5 Using a Veteran Sample

AbstractThe fifth edition of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM ‐5) introduced numerous revisions to the fourth edition's (DSM ‐IV) criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posing a challenge to clinicians and researchers who wish to assess PTSD symptoms continuously over time. The aim of this study was to develop a crosswalk between theDSM ‐IV andDSM ‐5 versions of the PTSD Checklist (PCL), a widely used self ‐rated measure of PTSD symptom severity. Participants were 1,003 U.S. veterans (58.7% with PTSD) who completed the PCL forDSM ‐IV (the PCL ‐C) andDSM ‐5 (the PCL ‐5) during their participation in an ongoing longitudinal registry study. In a randomly selected training sample (n = 800), we used equipercentile equating with loglinear smoothing to compute a “crosswalk” between PCL‐C and PCL‐5 scores. We evaluated the correspondence between the crosswalk‐determined predicted scores and observed PCL‐5 scores in the remaining validation sample (n = 203). The results showed strong correspondence between crosswalk ‐predicted PCL‐5 scores and observed PCL‐5 scores in the validation sample, ICC = .96. Predicted PCL‐5 scores performed comparably to observed PCL‐5 scores when examining their agreement with PTSD diagnosis ascertained by clinical interview: predicted PCL‐5, κ = 0.57; observed PCL‐5, κ = 0.59. Subsample comparisons indicated that the crosswalk's accuracy did not differ across characteris...
Source: Journal of Traumatic Stress - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Brief Report Source Type: research