Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Community: Prospects and Pitfalls From Recent Studies of Vietnam Veterans

Research on the assessment and diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has rather quickly expanded from relatively small studies in clinical settings into the realm of community epidemiology, increasingly relying on population-based or "community" studies. This article highlights some of the key challenges and opportunities associated with assessing PTSD outside of treatment settings by reviewing the results of some recent efforts to develop, test, and use diagnostic measures of PTSD among samples of Vietnam veterans in the community, including in particular the recently completed National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. Prevalence rates emanating from these different studies are compared, a comprehensive effort to account for some of the more major discrepancies is described, and a general strategy for assessing PTSD in the community-one based on comprehensive assessment of multimethod and multisource information-is suggested.

Duke Scholars

Author John A. Fairbank Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychia ...