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Impact%20of%20Event%20Scale%20(IES)
Availability
Please visit this website for more information about the instrument: Impact of Event Scale.
Classification
NeuroRehab Supplemental - Highly Recommended
Recommendations for Use: Indicated for studies requiring a measure of psychiatric and psychological functions.
 
Exploratory: Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysms and Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH), Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)*
*Note: Not recommended for SCI-Pediatric
 
 
Short Description of Instrument
Impact of Event Scale (IES) (Horowitz et al., 1979) is a self-report screening instrument with 15 items assessing symptoms of avoidance (8 items) and intrusion (7 items) in response to a specific traumatic event. The IES is valid and reliable, available in many languages, and has been used to study stress reactions in several samples, for example, in cancer and burn patients. The revised version (IES-R) is a 22-item self-report measure that assesses subjective distress caused by traumatic events. The IES-R contains seven additional items related to the hyperarousal symptoms of PTSD, which were not included in the original IES.
 
 
Comments/Special Instructions
The main outcome is the raw test result.
 
The total Dutch score has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum of 75, and a score =26 is an indication of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Item scores are 0, 1, 3 and 5. In the instructions for the German version the original scoring system of Horowitz et al., 1979 was altered into 0, 1, 2, and 3 for the responses "not at all," "rarely," "sometimes", and "often." Therefore, the maximum summary score of the German IES version is 45; the maximum scores for the Intrusion and Avoidance subscales are 21 and 24, respectively. The IES-R has seven additional questions and a scoring range of 0 to 88 points, and a score =24 represents clinical meaningful PTSD.
 
SCI-Pediatric specific: This scale is normed for adults; study found a number of items misinterpreted by children.
 
 
References
Horowitz M, Wilner N, Alvarez W. Impact of Event Scale: a measure of subjective stress. Psychosom Med. 1979;41(3):209-218.
 
Additional References:
 
Leibach GG, Perrin PB, Nicholls E, Leonor Olivera S, Medina Quintero L, Mauricio Velasco Trujillo D, Carlos Arango-Lasprilla J. Health related quality of life and mental health in children with SCI/D from Neiva, Colombia. NeuroRehabilitation. 2015;36(2):215-221.
 
Neugebauer E1, Bouillon B, Bullinger M, Wood-DauphinÉe S. Quality of life after multiple trauma - summary and recommendations of the consensus conference. Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2002;20(3-4):161-167.
 
Nicolais CJ, Perrin PB, Panyavin I, Nicholls EG, Olivera Plaza SL, Quintero LM, Arango-Lasprilla JC. Family dynamics and psychosocial functioning in children with SCI/D from Colombia, South America. J Spinal Cord Med. 2016;39(1):58-66.
 
Sundin EC & Horowitz MJ. Impact of Event Scale: psychometric properties. Br J Psychiatry. 2002 Mar;180:205-209.
 
Weiss DS & Marmar CR. (1997). The Impact of Event Scale-Revised. In J.P. Wilson & T.M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD New York: Guilford, pp.399-411.
 
Zilberg NJ, Weiss DS, Horowitz MJ. Impact of Event Scale: a cross-validation study and some empirical evidence supporting a conceptual model of stress response syndromes. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1982;50(3):407-414.
 
Document last updated January 2022