Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) Test

Understand how trauma symptoms impact your life in about 7 minutes. A 34 item profile of symptom frequency and intensity supports diagnosis, treatment planning, and tracking progress.

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Questions: 347 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

16,141 view

1,098 completions

839 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

69/136

Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS)

Measures the frequency and severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms related to a specific traumatic event.

Lower symptom level

Elevated symptom level

0 – 39: Lower symptom level | 40 – 136: Elevated symptom level

A score of 69 falls in the elevated symptom level range, indicating a higher likelihood of clinically significant PTSD-related symptoms on this self-report scale.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Recent trauma survivors

41%OF USERS

People who went through an accident, assault, disaster, or loss use it to gauge how much trauma symptoms like flashbacks, anxiety, and sleep problems are affecting daily life.

Veterans and first responders

34%OF USERS

Service members, emergency workers, and frontline staff take it to check the severity and frequency of PTSD-related reactions and track changes over time.

Therapy clients in treatment

25%OF USERS

People already in counseling use it to bring clearer symptom details to sessions and monitor progress as treatment moves forward.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Davidson Scale for PTSD Self-Assessment (DSfPS)

Average

Normal range

76.9 — 113.1

min.

max.

136

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

Please read each question carefully and then rate each item based on how often and how strongly you have experienced the symptoms over the past 7 days.

- Never
- Periodically
- Regularly
- Very often
- Almost constantly
- No symptoms
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
- Very severe
- Never
- Occasionally
- Regularly
- Very often
- Almost constantly

These are 3 of the 34 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) Test - Symptoms and Signs

ptsd

Following exposure to a potentially traumatic event, self-report symptom measures can help characterize the current impact on functioning. The Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) is a brief self-report instrument designed to quantify posttraumatic stress symptom frequency and severity across core symptom domains.

It contains 34 items and typically takes about 7 minutes to complete. Respondents rate how often symptoms occur and how distressing they have been, supporting a structured summary that may be used to inform clinical formulation and to monitor change over time.

Originally developed by Davidson, J., the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) is intended for use in clinical and research settings as a symptom severity measure and is not, by itself, a diagnostic determination.

Author: Davidson, J.

Literature: Weathers, F. W., Litz, B. T., Keane, T. M., Palmieri, P. A., Marx, B. P., & Schnurr, P. P. The PTSD checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5): Development and initial psychometric evaluation. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 2013.