Page 39 - Post-traumatic stress disorder in adults with mild intellectual disability: Screening, assessment, and brief intensive EMDR therapy

Reliability and validity of DITS-ID
Instruments
Diagnostic Interview Trauma and Stressors – Intellectual Disability – Adult
Version (DITS-ID-adults)
The DITS-ID-adults (Mevissen et al., 2018) is a Dutch clinical interview
(approximately 60 minutes) by which PTSD can be classified in adults with
MID-BIF based on the DSM-5 criteria for PTSD. The DITS-ID-adults protocol
systematically examines criteria A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H to establish
whether an individual satisfies the complete set of criteria required for
the classification of PTSD. The DITS-ID-adults uses simplified language
and visual cues and consists of four sections. The first section consists
of 31 questions about potentially traumatic and stressful events. If the
participant answers “Yes” the interviewer asks the following question:
“What happened?,” after which s/he places the event on a timeline.
Based on the participant’s answer, it is determined whether or not it is an
A-criterion event. An example of a question is, “Have you ever been bullied?”
If someone answers that he/she has only been bullied with unpleasant
words, it is not scored as an A-criterion event; if someone says that the
bullying turned serious harm was inflicted, then the answer is scored as an
A-criterion. The symptom section includes 39 PTSD symptom questions,
of which 32 corresponding to the DSM-5-TR symptom list (PTSD criteria B,
C, D, and E). These are questions to which the participant can answer “Yes”
or “No.” The interviewer uses the answer category “Other” if the participant
answers with: “I don’t know” or “I’ve always had that” or gives an unclear
answer. In addition, four other potentially atypical symptoms (e.g., “Do you
have to do some things again and again or always in the same order?”)
are asked. Subsequently, a thermometer card (a visual cue) was used to
support the person to indicate the subjective level of daily life impairment.
This scale ranges from 0 (totally not) to 8 (very much), with a score of 4
or higher meeting the G criterion. Finally, if the interference score is four
or higher, the participant is asked when the symptoms started, from what
age, or after which event. This will help confirm whether symptoms have
been present for more than a month, which is necessary to classify PTSD
(criterion F). Finally, the interviewer assesses whether the symptoms are
not explained by medication, drug use, other medical conditions or somatic
disorders (criterion H).
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