Contents • • • • • • • • Background [ ] The CAPS was originally designed by the National Center for PTSD to assess PTSD. This measure was intended to be clinician-administered, and only administered by those clinicians with prior experience, training, and knowledge of PTSD. Imax B6 Mini Charger Software. Previous measures of PTSD typically included introspective (subjective) self-report measures that the patient fills out without the help of a clinician.

BibMe Free Bibliography & Citation Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard. The gold standard for diagnosing PTSD is a structured clinical interview such as the Clinician. Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). When necessary, the PCL can be scored to provide a presumptive diagnosis. This has been done in three ways: (1) determine whether an individual meets DSM-IV symptom criteria as defined.

The clinically-administered PTSD scale was modeled after the (HDRS), a clinician-administered scale to assess depressive features. It should be noted however that the HDRS has been subject to criticism.

Some important features of the CAPS are: • Allows for a range of symptom severity rather than a dichotomous (yes/no) result. This allows for both a diagnosis as well as a sliding scale for clinicians to assess relative changes. It can be used for weekly changes or for a one-time diagnosis. • Creation of two scales: frequency and severity of symptoms. To fulfill a symptom criteria, a patient needs to have a certain frequency and severity of symptoms. This allows for a more refined level of measurement by measuring both how often a patient has symptoms and how severe they are. • Uniformity - the assessment was created in a way that would promote uniform administration of the assessment through clear questions and probes for interviewers.

Evolution [ ] Table 1 – Versions of the CAPS by Diagnostic Statistical Manual version DSM-III-R (1987) DSM-IV (1994) DSM-5 (2013) Past month CAPS-1 CAPS-DX CAPS-5 Past week CAPS-2 CAPS-SX CAPS-5 Worst month (lifetime) CAPS-1 CAPS-DX CAPS-5 Children. CAPS-CA CAPS-CA-5 The CAPS has developed over the years to keep up with changes in the widely used (DSM). The DSM is currently in its fifth edition (DSM-5, May 2013) and serves as a guide to clinicians in diagnosing mental disorders. It should be noted, however, that the DSM system of psychiatric classifications is problematic in typecasting many relatively normal behavioral issues as 'abnormal' (e.g., such as the over-classification of ADHD), promoting and entrenching archaic stereotypical psychiatric nosology, and in reifying subjective suppositions about psychopathology.

Detailed critiques of the DSM system of psychiatric classifications have been published. Currently, there are three versions of the CAPS-5 (Table 1). One version provides responses in the past month, one provides responses in the past week, and the last provides responses for the worst month (lifetime PTSD). There is also a version for children - the CAPS-CA-5 Table 1 also shows the development of the CAPS by DSM version. The CAPS1 was intended to monitor changes over a one-month period, whereas the CAPS-2 was developed to monitor changes over a week period. The CAPS-1 and CAPS-2 were later changed to the CAPS-DX and CAPS-SX respectively to avoid confusion over future versions.

The CAPS-5 has two versions – one that can assess for one-week changes and one that can assess for one-month changes. The one-week changes may be more helpful for treatment providers to see change in symptom scores over time, whereas the one-month changes may be more helpful to assess for baseline PTSD. The CAPS has been revised to the CAPS-5 to reflect current changes in the. The CAPS is currently the gold-standard assessment for PTSD and is used widely through the VA for compensation and pension determinations.

As described in Table 1, there are three versions of the CAPS, one to monitor monthly changes (often used for diagnosis), one to monitor weekly changes (often for assessing for time changes) and worst month (to assess for lifetime PTSD). Current version and recent changes [ ] The current CAPS-5 contains 30 questions relating to PTSD symptoms. Each question asks about both the frequency and the severity of each symptom. These questions are split into categories. Each criterion has several questions, and scores for each criterion are added up at the end.

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