Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD

This comprehensive volume reviews the theoretical rationale, scientific validity, and clinical applicability of a wide range of instruments and techniques used to assess psychological trauma and PTSD. Helping clinicians and researchers stay completely up-to-date and organized in their thinking about assessment, leading experts describe and evaluate numerous self-report measures, structured interviews, and standardized batteries, in addition to psychophysiological, epidemiological, and neuropsychological approaches. Chapters explore assessment issues specific to such stressors as childhood trauma and abuse, military-related PTSD, trauma related to medical illness, and traumatic bereavement. Also considered are methodological challenges and limitations raised by age, sex, ethnic, and other differences in victim and survivor populations.

This comprehensive and up-to-date book brings together leading authorities to cover the entire spectrum of instruments, techniques, standardized measures, and procedures used to diagnose and measure the psychological and physiological aftermath of trauma. Chapters review the research literature, discuss relevant conceptual issues, and provide practical guidelines for assessing PTSD and dissociative disorders in a wide range of clinical populations. Special topics covered include issues of gender, culture, and ethnicity in assessment; assessment of traumatized children and adult survivors of abuse; traumatic bereavement; and trauma-related disorders in medical settings.