Diagnostic practices for traumatized youths: do clinicians incorporate symptom scale results?

Clinician generated diagnoses are subject to heuristic biases, and structured diagnostic interviews are useful but costly diagnostic aids. Because dimensional rating scales may hold potential to improve diagnostic practices in community mental health settings, we examined how community clinicians incorporate the results of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC; Briere 1996) into their diagnostic practices. Results suggest clinicians may attend to the TSCC anxiety and depression scores, but most scales agreed poorly with diagnoses assigned. While dimensional rating scales do hold potential as diagnostic aids, additional work on how to increase their utility to clinicians is needed.