PLEASE NOTE: This blog post dates back to December 2008.  All the questionnaires on this page, updated scoring details for the IES-R, the widely used Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory, descriptions of how to do "reliving" of the trauma, written accounts, and site visits, as well as a series of other updated PTSD-relevant questionnaires and handouts are available on the relevant "Good knowledge" page of this website - "PTSD assessment, images, memories & assessment".  Also of relevance (particularly for child abuse) is the page "Life review, traumatic memories & therapeutic writing".

Here are half a dozen assessment questionnaires for PTSD and intrusive memories.  The Impact of Event Scale (IES) is a classic which has been used for many years.  Unfortunately it only measures Intrusions and Avoidance, but not Hyperarousal.  The revised IES (the IES-R) puts this omission right and is the recommended PTSD scale for the NHS Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative.  There's a lack of data providing typical scores on the IES-R in both normal and clinical populations.  The Institute of Psychiatry booklet provides some orientation here.  The PTSD with Pain screen is a quickly administrable questionnaires of use for people suffering from chronic pain disorders.  The Intrusive Memories Assessment is a four item questionnaire that's helpful more broadly than just for PTSD sufferers.  The Posttraumatic Growth and Trauma Belief Inventories can help direct the focus of therapy and monitor progress.

IES and scoring details - this is the classic 1979 Horowitz Impact of Event Scale that has been widely used in subsequent research.  A major problem with the scale is that it assesses only Intrusions and Avoidance and does not consider Hyperarousal symptoms.

IES-R - the 1995 Revised Impact of Event Scale adds in a Hyperarousal assessment to the original IES.  Unfortunately there is currently less data on typical scores for normal subjects and for those suffering from PTSD.  The UK Institute of Psychiatry provides some useful information about this on pages 28-29 of their booklet.

PTSD with Pain screen - this is a quick screening questionnaire to help detect PTSD in people suffering with chronic pain disorders.

Intrusive memories assessment - this is a quick intrusive memories assessment scale developed by Professor Chris Brewin.

Posttraumatic growth inventory - this interesting scale assesses areas where there may have been helpful learning & growth after trauma.  When I use this scale, it is sometimes as much for its "educational function" in alerting the person who is completing the scale to issues that some other sufferers have noticed have been positive after their trauma.

Trauma belief inventory - this is a trauma beliefs inventory developed by Chris Freeman at the Edinburgh Cullen Centre - now shifted to the Edinburgh Traumatic Stress Centre.