Validation of the use of video teleconferencing technology in the assessment of PTSD.

ABSTRACT

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has promoted the use of telehealth technologies to deliver mental health care to veterans with limited access to services on account of geographic and other barriers. The use of technology to deliver interventions to veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been a particular focus within VHA. Much less attention has been paid to the use of telehealth technologies to diagnose veterans with PTSD for both treatment and/or disability compensation purposes, in spite of the need for such services. The literature evaluating the use of video teleconferencing methods in the assessment of PTSD is limited; to our knowledge, only 1 previous study has been published. The current study evaluated the psychometric characteristics of the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) administered by video teleconferencing with a larger and more diverse sample of veterans. The CAPS raters had high interrater reliability and there were strong correlations between face-to-face CAPS assessments and video teleconferencing CAPS assessments for diagnosis and total severity. The results suggest that the CAPS can and should be used via video teleconferencing with veterans who have barriers to face-to-face evaluations.