The scoring and interpretation of the SDQ-20 and SDQ-5

Abstract

The 20-item Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ-20; Nijenhuis, Spinhoven, Van Dyck, Van der Hart, & Van-derlinden, 1996) evaluates the severity of somatoform dissociation. The SDQ-20 items were derived from a pool of 75 items describing clinically observed somatoform dissociative symptoms that in clinical settings had appeared upon reactivation of particular dissociative parts of the personality and that could not be medically explained. The SDQ-20 scores were best predicted by self-reported physical and sexual traumatization in patients with dissociative disorders and psychiatric controls (Nijenhuis et al., 1998c), even after statistically controlling for self-reported emotional traumatization (emotional neglect and emotional abuse). These traumatization scores were composed of four factors, i.e. presence of trauma, duration of trauma, relationship to perpetrator, and subjectively rated impact of trauma.