---
name: post-traumatic-stress-assessment
description: Use when asked to administer, score, or explain a Post-Traumatic Stress Assessment — DSM-5-aligned PTSD screening using the PCL-5 — grounded in FormExamples/form-examples.
---

# Post-Traumatic Stress Assessment

Post-traumatic stress symptom screen based on the DSM-5-aligned PCL-5
(PTSD Checklist for DSM-5), used to identify probable PTSD, monitor
severity, and track response to trauma-focused therapy.

## Scoring

**Instrument:** PCL-5 — 20 items scored 0–4, total 0–80.

- **Minimal (0–20)** — below clinical concern.
- **Mild (21–32)** — sub-threshold symptoms; monitor and offer support.
- **Moderate (33–37)** — probable PTSD (≥ 33 is the recommended
  provisional cut-off); diagnostic interview recommended.
- **Severe (38–80)** — clinically significant PTSD; trauma-focused
  therapy indicated.

## What it covers

Demographics; trauma event identification; intrusion symptoms (DSM-5
Cluster B); avoidance symptoms (Cluster C); negative alterations in
cognitions and mood (Cluster D); and alterations in arousal and
reactivity (Cluster E).

## Common pitfalls

- **Treating the PCL-5 total as diagnostic on its own** — the ≥ 33
  cut-off is a *provisional* threshold prompting a full diagnostic
  interview; it's a screening result, not a standalone diagnosis.
- **Administering it without first identifying the index trauma
  event** — PCL-5 items are rated in relation to a specific identified
  traumatic event; skipping trauma-event identification makes the
  ratings ambiguous about what they're actually measuring.
- **Missing avoidance symptoms because they're less visible** —
  avoidance (Cluster C) often presents as absence of behavior rather
  than a distressing symptom actively reported, making it easy to
  under-elicit without directly asking.

## Learn more

- [FormExamples: post-traumatic-stress-assessment](https://github.com/FormExamples/form-examples/tree/main/forms/post-traumatic-stress-assessment) for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.
- [[mental-health-assessment]], [[substance-abuse-assessment]] for related mental-health assessments.