PTSDdiag is a comprehensive R package for analyzing and simplifying PTSD diagnostic criteria using PCL-5 (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5) data. It provides tools to identify optimal subsets of six PCL-5 items that maintain diagnostic accuracy while reducing assessment burden.

• Data preparation and standardization for PCL-5 scores
• Implementation of DSM-5 diagnostic criteria
• Calculation of diagnostic metrics and summary statistics
• Simplification of diagnostic criteria through:
  • Hierarchical (cluster-based) approach
  • Non-hierarchical approach
• Comparison of different diagnostic approaches
• Model validation using:
  • Holdout Validation
  • Cross-Validation

This package is currently only hosted on GitHub. It can be installed using the usual way:

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("WeidmannL/PTSDdiag")

The vignette demonstrates how to use the package to prepare the PCL-5 data, calculate some basic descriptive statistics and reliability metrics, find the optimal minimal symptom combinations for PTSD diagnosis, compare different diagnostic approaches and perform validation methods for evaluating model performance.

• An Introduction to PTSDdiag

• If you have any suggestions or if you find a bug, please report them using GitHub issue tracker.
• Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.