Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults With Severe or Moderate Intellectual Disability Using the Diagnostic Interview Trauma and Stressors-Severe Intellectual Disability.

The team built a caregiver interview called DITS-SID. It asks about trauma signs in adults with severe or moderate intellectual disability.

Two raters watched the same interviews to see if they would give the same PTSD diagnosis. They also checked if the new tool agreed with other well-known screens.

Raters agreed most of the time. The tool also lined up well with other PTSD and behavior measures.

In short, the DITS-SID gives a reliable yes-or-no on PTSD in this hard-to-test group.

Hove et al. (2008) and McLennan et al. (2008) did the same kind of work. They showed that caregiver checklists for general psychopathology and depression also yield solid inter-rater numbers. The new PTSD tool now extends that line of evidence to trauma.

Vargas-Vargas et al. (2015) validated the Spanish DASH-II for severe ID. Their positive reliability numbers match ours, showing the method travels across languages and cultures.

Madden et al. (2003) took a different path. They used a self-report anxiety scale for adults with mild ID. At first glance this seems opposite: self versus caregiver. The studies do not clash. They simply cover different ability levels. When speech is limited, caregiver tools like DITS-SID are needed. When adults can self-report, tools like GAS-ID work fine.

Many BCBAs serve adults who can’t describe flashbacks or nightmares. If trauma is missed, behaviors are treated as "just aggression." The DITS-SID gives you a quick, evidence-based way to flag PTSD so you can add trauma-informed strategies to the behavior plan.