MEASUREMENT WORKSHOP: "KEY ISSUES IN ASSESSING EXPOSURE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA"

This presentation will focus on some of the key challenges and unresolved issues regarding the assessment of exposure to traumatic life events. Questions addressed will include: Do traumatic events differ qualitatively from other stressors? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the DSM-IV-TR definition of a traumatic event in Criterion A for PTSD? What are the unique limitations of retrospective self-report for assessing trauma exposure? How can these limitations be overcome or at least minimized? What other difficulties do clinicians and researchers face in evaluating and quantifying the nature and extent of trauma exposure and linking it to PTSD and other trauma-related sequelae? Particular emphasis will be given to taking a dimensional rather than a categorical approach to assessing trauma. To the extent that different traumatic events all lead to essentially the same syndrome of PTSD, this implies that they share common underlying dimensions. If so, the key questions become what are these common dimensions and how can they best be identified and measured? Although specific instruments will be used as examples, the session will not be a review of available trauma measures, but an interactive discussion of conceptual and practical issues in the assessment of trauma.