The Symptoms of Trauma Scale (SOTS): Psychometric evaluation and gender differences with adults diagnosed with serious mental illness

ABSTRACT

A new clinician rating measure, the Symptoms of Trauma Scale (SOTS), was administered to adult psychiatric outpatients (46 men, 47 women) with severe mental illness who reported a history of trauma exposure and had recently been discharged from inpatient psychiatric treatment. SOTS composite severity scores for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD (cPTSD), and total PTSD/cPTSD severity had acceptable internal consistency reliability. SOTS scores’ construct and convergent validity was supported by correlations with self-report measures of childhood and adult trauma history and PTSD, dissociation, and anger symptoms. For men, SOTS scores were associated with childhood sexual and emotional abuse and self-reported anger problems, whereas for women SOTS scores were most consistently and strongly associated with childhood family adversity and self-reported PTSD symptoms. Results provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the SOTS with adults with severe mental illness and suggest directions for replication, measure refinement, and research on gender differences.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment
• childhood trauma
• dissociation
• PTSD
• complex PTSD
• reliability
• severe mental illness
• validity

Acknowledgments

There are no conflicts of interest. Lewis A. Opler and Kristina Muenzenmaier are authors of the SOTS and have a commercial interest in its distribution by Multi-Health Systems, Inc. Statistical analyses were performed by Dr. Andres R. Schneeberger, from whom the protocol may be obtained ([email protected]). The data have not been previously published or presented at any meeting. Julian D. Ford and Andres R. Schneeberger contributed equally to this work.

Funding

This research was funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health. We declare that, except for income received from our primary employers, no financial support or compensation was received from any individual or corporate entity for research or professional service related to this study.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health. We declare that, except for income received from our primary employers, no financial support or compensation was received from any individual or corporate entity for research or professional service related to this study.