Screening tool
PC-PTSD-5 — the PTSD screening questionnaire
The PC-PTSD-5 is a brief screen for post-traumatic stress from the VA's National Center for PTSD. It starts by asking whether you have experienced a traumatic event; if so, it asks five yes/no questions about the past month. It produces a count from 0 to 5 and is a screen, not a diagnosis. It is one of the questionnaires clinicians use to raise trauma at a primary-care visit, so completing it here shows you what your provider may ask and helps you prepare for that conversation.
Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5). Prins, Bovin, Kimerling, Kaloupek, Marx, Pless Kaiser & Schnurr (2015). U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD — public domain.
Who is this for?
Adults 18 and older who have lived through a frightening or traumatic event and have noticed lasting effects, and want a structured way to raise it with a clinician. It is a screen, not a diagnosis, and screening positive means a fuller conversation is worthwhile.
This page is educational. It reproduces the published questionnaire and its published scoring so you can see what it asks and how clinicians read it. It does not diagnose any condition, recommend treatment, or replace a clinician’s evaluation. If you complete it here, your answers stay on your device and are not stored unless you choose to save the result to your own Gale record.
Before you begin
A validated screening questionnaire — not a diagnosis. Only a licensed clinician can diagnose. It is one of the questionnaires a provider may use at a visit — completing it here is for your own understanding and preparation. Validated for adults 18 and older. It begins with a question about difficult experiences, and you can stop at any time. Your answers stay on this device unless you choose to save them. 1 gate + 5 questions · about 2 minutes.
How the PC-PTSD-5 is scored
Sometimes things happen to people that are unusually or especially frightening, horrible, or traumatic. For example:
- a serious accident or fire
- a physical or sexual assault or abuse
- an earthquake or flood
- a war
- seeing someone be killed or seriously injured
- having a loved one die through homicide or suicide.
Have you ever experienced this kind of event? If no, the screen total is 0.
In the past month, have you…
| Question | No | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. had nightmares about the event(s) or thought about the event(s) when you did not want to? | 0 | 1 |
| 2. tried hard not to think about the event(s) or went out of your way to avoid situations that reminded you of the event(s)? | 0 | 1 |
| 3. been constantly on guard, watchful, or easily startled? | 0 | 1 |
| 4. felt numb or detached from people, activities, or your surroundings? | 0 | 1 |
| 5. felt guilty or unable to stop blaming yourself or others for the event(s) or any problems the event(s) may have caused? | 0 | 1 |
The total is the number of items answered "Yes", from 0 to 5.
Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5). Prins, Bovin, Kimerling, Kaloupek, Marx, Pless Kaiser & Schnurr (2015). U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD — public domain.
What your score means
A total of 3 or higher is the more sensitive cut point; 4 or higher optimally balanced sensitivity and specificity in VA primary care.
There are no graded severity bands; a positive screen is a prompt for a fuller conversation, not a diagnosis.
How accurate is it?
A total of 3 or higher is the more sensitive cut point; 4 or higher optimally balanced sensitivity and specificity in VA primary care.
In that VA primary-care sample, a cut point of 4 gave the best overall balance of catches and false alarms; a cut point of 3 caught more people at the cost of more false positives. Some clinicians use a lower cut point for women. 1Ref 1Prins A, Bovin MJ, Smolenski DJ, et al. (2016).The Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5): development and evaluation within a veteran primary care sample.Validation of the PC-PTSD-5; in a VA primary care sample a cut point of 3 was optimally sensitive and a cut point of 4 optimally balanced sensitivity and specificity for probable PTSD.
A per-band number-needed-to-evaluate could not be sourced for this instrument, so the personal result is shown as a score with the published ranges below rather than a single band label.
Bringing your results to your provider
A screening result is most useful in a conversation with a clinician who knows you. It is not a verdict and it does not decide a diagnosis or a treatment — only a licensed clinician can do that, after a fuller evaluation. What a result can do is give you a concrete, structured way to describe what you have been noticing.
When you complete the PC-PTSD-5 above, Gale drafts a short set of talking points from your answers — the number, the published interpretation, how long the symptoms have been present, and a few questions to ask. You can read them out at a visit, or save the result and bring it along. The point is not the label; it is that you walk in able to advocate for yourself with something specific to say.
Common questions
Is a positive PC-PTSD-5 a diagnosis of PTSD?
No. It is a brief screen. Screening positive means further assessment — ideally a structured interview with a clinician — is worthwhile; it does not diagnose PTSD.
What if I have not experienced a traumatic event?
The screen begins with that question. If you have not, the screen is complete with a total of 0 and there is nothing further to answer.
What if answering brings up a crisis?
If you are thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741; if you are in immediate danger, call 911. You can stop the questionnaire at any time.
Is this the questionnaire my provider will use?
It may be. The PC-PTSD-5 is a common primary-care trauma screen, so your provider may use this questionnaire or a different one. Completing it here shows you what it asks, and bringing your result can start the conversation.
Read next
Sources
- 1.Prins A, Bovin MJ, Smolenski DJ, et al. (2016). The Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5): development and evaluation within a veteran primary care sample. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 31(10): 1206-1211. doi:10.1007/s11606-016-3703-5 ✓Validation of the PC-PTSD-5; in a VA primary care sample a cut point of 3 was optimally sensitive and a cut point of 4 optimally balanced sensitivity and specificity for probable PTSD.
1 sources, numbered by first appearance. Every entry verified 2026-06-11 against PubMed / PMC / publisher pages (214 in the full bibliography).