Use of the Mississippi Scale for Combat‐Related PTSD in detecting war‐related, non‐combat stress symptomatology

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Mississippi Scale for Desert Storm War Zone Personnel (M‐PTSD‐DS), developed from the Mississippi Scale for Combat Related PTSD (M‐PTSD; Keane, Caddell, & Taylor, 1988), in the measurement of varying degrees of war‐related post‐traumatic stress (PTS) symptomatology of non‐combat Persian Gulf War veterans. Thirty Marines were administered the M‐PTSD‐DS after 3 months of active duty in Operation Desert Storm. The M‐PTSD‐DS scores of the Marines were related significantly to the number of PTS symptoms reported by the Marines. This scale appears to be quite effective in detecting varying degrees of war‐related stress in non‐combatants. Copyright © 1995 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company