Validation of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complexPTSDusing the International Trauma Questionnaire

Abstract

The factorial and discriminant validity of ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD was supported, and ICD-11 produces fewer diagnostic cases than DSM-5.

A psychometric assessment of Disturbances in Self-Organization symptom indicators for ICD-11 Complex PTSD using the International Trauma Questionnaire

“…This resulted in the development of nine AD symptoms, reflecting hyper-activation and hypo-activation experiences, four NSC symptoms, and three DR symptoms. Early factorial validity studies that utilized the full set of potential symptom indicators provided support for the CPTSD proposals (Hyland, Shevlin et al, 2017; Hyland et al, 2017; Karatzias et al, 2016). Despite this empirical support there was a need to reduce the number of DSO symptoms in the ITQ to ensure that the CPTSD diagnosis aligns with the ICD-11’s emphasis on clinical utility and use of as few symptom indicators without compromising validity and diagnostic utility (Maercker et al, 2013).…”

“…Initial construct validation studies of the ITQ have been promising (e.g. Hyland, Shevlin et al, 2017; Hyland et al, 2017; Karatzias et al, 2016). However, to date, the focus of the psychometric research has been on testing the latent structure of CPTSD, but there has been no attempt to assess how the DSO symptoms perform in a diagnostic capacity.…”

Testing competing factor models of the latent structure of post-traumatic stress disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder according to ICD-11

“…Hansen et al, 2015; Hyland, Brewin, & Maercker, 2017; O’Donnell et al, 2014) and CPTSD (Hyland et al, 2017; Shevlin et al, 2017; Tay, Rees, Chen, Kareth, & Silove, 2015). However, given that this is a nascent area of research, these studies are limited by the use of proxy items derived from different scales that measure PTSD and proposed DSO symptoms.…”

“…To overcome this limitation, the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) was developed in line with the proposed diagnostic criteria of PTSD and CPTSD (Cloitre, Roberts, Bisson, & Brewin, 2015). Although this measure is still in the development stages in terms of refining the symptom content and factor structure, a few studies using clinical and non-clinical samples have assessed the distinctiveness of PTSD and CPTSD using this instrument (Ben-Ezra et al, 2018; Hyland et al, 2017; Karatzias et al, 2016). …”

“…The factorial validity of PTSD and CPTSD has been tested, with emerging evidence supporting three possible models: a factor structure in which all six symptom clusters are correlated with each other in a non-hierarchical fashion (Tay et al, 2015), a single higher-order factor supported by six second-order factors (Silove, Tay, Kareth, & Rees, 2017), and a second-order two-factor model represented by PTSD and DSO and six correlated first-order factors (Hyland et al, 2017; Karatzias et al, 2016; Shevlin et al, 2017). Collectively, the evidence indicates the superiority of the two-factor higher-order model comprised of the PTSD and DSO domains, which supports the theoretical model of CPTSD as being comprised of two distinct but related components.…”