The SCL-90-R, explained

The SCL-90-R (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised) is a widely used psychological questionnaire published by Pearson. It was developed by Dr. Leonard R. Derogatis, a psychologist who has authored more than a dozen psychological test instruments.

It has 90 questions that gauge how much distress you are experiencing, if any, across nine areas:

• Somatization (SOM)
• Obsessive-compulsive (O-C)
• Interpersonal sensitivity (I-S)
• Depression (DEP)
• Anxiety (ANX)
• Hostility (HOS)
• Phobic anxiety (PHOB)
• Paranoid ideation (PAR)
• Psychoticism (PSY)

Why and when it is taken

I use it as a basic screener at the beginning of counselling and again at the end. It helps in three ways:

• It shows whether your distress is at a clinical level, where support such as psychiatric care may be needed alongside counselling.
• It shows where distress is highest, so we can decide what to work on first and plan accordingly.
• Taken again at the end, it measures how much has changed.

The scores give therapy a clear starting point, so issues can be tackled one at a time, in order of priority.

Reading the results

The results come as a chart across the nine areas. Put simply, the lower the points, the lower the distress. As a rule of thumb, a raw score of 2 or higher in an area is considered clinical, which suggests that help in addition to counselling may be useful. Depending on the person, that could be psychiatric care or complementary support such as Bach flower remedies.

What each area covers

• Somatization: distress from bodily sensations, such as heart, stomach, breathing or muscle complaints that often accompany anxiety.
• Obsessive-compulsive: thoughts, urges and actions that feel unwanted yet hard to resist, along with difficulty concentrating.
• Interpersonal sensitivity: feeling inadequate or inferior compared with others, self-doubt, and discomfort in social situations.
• Depression: low mood, withdrawal from life, lack of motivation and energy, hopelessness, and in some cases thoughts of suicide.
• Anxiety: nervousness, tension and trembling, feelings of dread or panic, and their physical signs.
• Hostility: thoughts, feelings and actions linked to anger, such as resentment, irritability and rage.
• Phobic anxiety: a persistent fear of a particular person, place, object or situation, out of proportion to any real threat, that leads to avoidance.
• Paranoid ideation: suspicious thinking, hostility, grandiosity and a fear of losing control.
• Psychoticism: a range from a withdrawn, isolated way of living at one end to more serious symptoms at the other.

An important note

The SCL-90-R is not a diagnostic tool and does not diagnose any disorder or mental health condition. It is a basic screener that helps the therapist and the client decide what to do next.

This article was first published on Practo Health Feed. Read the original on Practo