The Stress Response Rating Scale: a clinician's measure for rating the response to serious life-events.

The impact of a serious life-event on an individual's psychological well-being has long been appreciated, but not until recently has it become the subject of more thorough and careful research. Clinical, field, and experimental studies of the effects of potentially distressing life-events have suggested the presence of two primary modes of response: episodes of denial and numbing, oscillating with periods of intrusive thoughts, images, and pangs of emotion. Although self-report measures are available for determining the degree of distress experienced in each of these modes of response, there is no measure that can be used by a clinical observer to assess these same phenomena. We offer the Stress Response Rating Scale (SRRS) as such a measure, and present empirical data to support its reliability and validity. In addition, we present some initial normative data, a discussion of issues encountered in developing the scale, and potential difficulties that may be encountered in its use.