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Background : Identifying high-risk groups for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during evacuation situations requires a valid short screening tool. The re-experiencing symptoms of PTSD are considered helpful for distinguishing those with PTSD from those without, as they are thought to be specific to PTSD, have less ambiguity for respondents, and are representative of all PTSD symptoms. Objective : To develop a new short version of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) comprising only re-experiencing symptom items. Method : We used existing data ( N = 169) from our previous study on the Japanese version of the PDS and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). The sample included both clinical outpatients ( n = 106) and university students ( n = 63), all of whom reported one or more traumatic experiences. We created candidate 2- and 3-item versions of the PDS and compared their psychometric characteristics against the CAPS. Results : The best candidate (comprising items for 'intrusive images', 'nightmares', and 'physiological reactions when reminded of the trauma') demonstrated an area under the curve of .95, 94.8% sensitivity, 86.1% specificity for the best cut-off score of three. The candidate scale also showed a strong correlation with CAPS-evaluated severity score and internal consistency. Conclusions : The brief re-experiencing PDS had good psychometric properties among Japanese adults with and without PTSD.

Background: On February 27, 2010 (F-27), an earthquake and tsunami occurred having a significant impact on the mental health of the Chilean population, leading to an increase in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)., Objectives: Within this context, validated for the first time in Chile was the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) using three samples (each one consisting of 200 participants), two of them random from the Chilean population., Results: Reliability analyses (i.e., α=0.933), concurrent validity (63% of the items are significantly correlated with the criteria variable "degree of damage to home") and construct validity (i.e., CMIN = 3.754, RMSEA = 0.118, NFI = 0.808, CFI = 0.850 and PNFI = 0.689) indicate validity between regular and good for DTS. However, a new short version of the scale (DTS-SF) created using the items with heavier factor weights, presented better fits (CMIN = 2.170, RMSEA = 0.077, NFI = 0.935, CFI = 0.963, PNFI = 0.697)., Discussion: Finally, the usefulness of DTS and DTS-SF is discussed, the latter being briefer, valid and having better psychometric characteristics.