Traumatic experiences and the potential mental health impact may differ around the world.

To assess them we need instruments that are culturally sensitive and available in local languages. 

In this theme we are looking for researchers and clinicians with expertise in this area.  

Please contact us (m.olff@amc.nl) if you are working in this area and would like to contribute.

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SEX AND GENDER

Within the GCTS we aim to explicitly consider sex/gender aspects across all projects (see About).

To encourage reporting of comparable data across studies, we propose the following options for measuring sex and gender (Langeland & Olff, 2024):

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• What sex were you assigned at birth?

      1 = male, 2 = female, 3 = intersex, 4 = other, namely, 5 = prefer not to answer

• What is your gender identity?

      1 = man, 2 = women, 3 = non-binary, 4 = gender queer, 5 = other, namely, 6 = prefer not to answer

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Langeland, W., & Olff, M. (2024). Sex and gender in psychotrauma research. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2024.2358702

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SCREENING INSTRUMENTS

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1.  Translatons of PTSD Screening Questionnaires

Screening for PTSD in clinical and research contexts is often performed using a questionnaire. Most of these questionnaires (e.g., the PCL-5) were originally developed in English but have since been translated and adapted into many other languages and cultural contexts. We created a repository with different validated translations of established PTSD screening questionnaires. The repository can be found here.

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2.   Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS):  The development of a short screener of the wide range of potential consequences of trauma

The Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress recognized there was no instrument available for screening of the wide range of potential outcomes of trauma for trauma survivors around the world in different cultures.  This resulted in the development of the Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS), now available in more than 30 languages (GPS).  Find out more here.

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3.   Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS) for children (GPS-C) and teenagers (GPS-T)

The GPS has been adapted for children and adolescents, now also available in several languages.

Find out more here.

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SELF-REPORT MEASURES

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4.   CARTS: A novel online survey methodology: Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS)

The group focused on the validation of the Computerized Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS), a self-report measure designed to measure occurrences of childhood maltreatment, and its translation into multiple languages. Find out more or fill it in yourself: here.

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OLD AGE

 

5. Assessment of trauma and its consequences in old age

The global population is growing older and ageism takes place. Older adults and people with dementia may have a different symptom presentation of PTSD compared to adults. The Global Collaboration of Traumatic Stress is therefore

a)  establishing a worldwide network of researchers in the field of traumatic stress, older adults and cognition (ON TRACK).

b) Looking into Trauma and Dementia (TRADE) e.g. developing an instrument to assess PTSD in oder adults with dementia.

Find out more here.

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ICD-11 MEASURES

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6. G-Stress: Assessment – Translation and validation of measures of trauma and traumatic distress in accordance with ICD-11 guidelines

The ICD-11 will come into effect for all United Nations member states on January 1st, 2022. The ICD-11 includes updated conceptualizations of trauma exposure and trauma-based disorders including Adjustment Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Prolonged Grief Disorder (find information here). Members of the ICD-11 Working Group for Disorders Specifically Associated with Stress have developed self-report measures of all of these disorders that are freely available. All measures can be accessed here.

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Spanish translations of: 

• The International Adjustment Disorder Questionnaire (IADQ)

• International Trauma Exposure Measure (ITEM)

• Inventory of Complicated Grief (TGI)

• International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ)

O’Higgins M, Barrios I, Amarilla D, Figueredo P, Almirón-Santacruz J, Ruiz-Díaz N, Melgarejo O, Castaldelli-Maia JM, Ventriglio A, Torales J. The International Trauma Questionnaire: An assessment of the psychometric properties of its Spanish version. Electron J Gen Med. 2022;19(6):em408. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejgm/12389

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ICD-11 AND DSM-5 

 

7. Trauma, Bereavement and Grief

The inclusion of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) as one of the trauma- and stressor related disorders in the Text Revision of the 5th Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR, 2022) and as a disorder specifically related to stress in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11, 2018) has prompted research into disturbed grief and often comorbid mental disorders such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. To meet the need for up-to-date assessment for clinical and research purposes, new instruments have been or are being developed. Find out more here.

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8. Assessment of Trauma Symptoms in Children and Adolescents

CATS-2: The Child and Adolescent Trauma Screen-2 (CATS-2; Sachser et al., 2022) is an Instrument to measure DSM-5 and ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD in Children and Adolescents aged 7-17 years. It is available as self-report and as caregiver report and has so far been validated in English (self-report / caregiver), German (self-report / caregiver), and Norwegian (self-report / caregiver). and Ukrainian (self-report / caregiver).

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9. Moral injury instruments

Moral injury refers to the profound psychological distress that can arise from being exposed to various situations involving actions that go against one's core beliefs. On this page we present several Instruments to assess moral injury (events and sequealae).

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