• Screening measure of general psychiatric symptomatology
  • Items include dimensions measuring somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism
  • Can be used to screen for psychiatric disorders and has been found useful in quantifying a variety of emotional reactions in adults following SCI

Clinical Considerations

  • The SCL-90-R is best used to screen for global psychological distress
  • This questionnaire has received much research attention and as a result, normative scores are available for a variety of patient and non-patient populations
  • The instrument requires a reading knowledge equivalent to that of a sixth-grade education

ICF Domain

Body Function ▶ Mental Functions

Administration

  • Self-report questionnaire
  • Patients are asked to rate the severity of their experiences with 90 symptoms over the past week on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 ‘not at all’ to 4 ‘extremely’
  • The symptoms are assigned to 9 dimensions reflecting various types of psychopathology
  • Administration time is usually less than 15 minutes

Number of Items

90

Equipment

None

Scoring

Items are summed for a total score.

Languages

The instrument is available in English, Spanish, and French.

Training Required

Does not require advanced training.

Availability

The Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised worksheet can be purchased here.

Starter kits are approximately $50.

# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 2

Interpretability

  • The SCL-90-R is normed for 4 groups: adult psychiatric outpatients; adult non-patients; adult psychiatric inpatients; and adolescent non-patients. This information is available in the SCL-90-R manual.
  • There is no normative data for the SCI population at this time.

MCID: not established
SEM: not established
MDC: not established

Reliability

  • Internal consistency of the cognitive/affective depression subscale is High (Cronbach’s a = 0.89).
  • Internal consistency of the somatic depression subscale is Moderate (Cronbach’s a = 0.62).

(Buckelew et al. 1988: n=52, 44 males, 8 females; mean time since injury = 1.5 years)

Validity

Moderate to High correlation with Medically-Based Emotional Distress Scale (MEDS):

  • SCL-90-R Depression: r=0.77
  • SCL-90-R Hostility: r=0.65
  • SCL-90-R Anxiety: r=0.55
  • SCL-90-R Interpersonal Sensitivity: r=0.66

(Overholser et al. 1993: n=81, 63 males, 18 females; mean (SD) age 36.1 (14.4) years, quadriplegia and tetraplegia)

Responsiveness

No values were reported for the responsiveness of the SCL-90-R for the SCI population.

Floor/Ceiling Effect

No values were reported for the presence of floor/ceiling effects in the SCL-90-R for the SCI population.

Reviewers

Dr. Carlos L. Cano-Herrera, Tyra Chu

Date Last Updated

31 December 2024

Buckelew SP, Burk JP, Brownelee-Duffeck M, Frank RG, DeGood D. Cognitive and somatic aspects of depression among a rehabilitation sample: Reliability and Validity of SCL-90-R research subscales. Rehabilitation Psychology 1988; 33: 67-75.
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rep/33/2/67/

Derogatis LR, Melisaratos N. The Brief Symptom Inventory: in introductory report. Psychol Med 1983; 13(3): 595-605.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6622612

Frank R, Elliot T. Life stress and psychologic adjustment following spinal cord injury. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 1987; 68: 344-347.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3592946

Hardt J, Gerbershagen HU, Franke P. The symptom check-list, SCL-(90)-R: its use and characteristics in chronic pain patients. European Journal of Pain 2000; 4: 137-148.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10957695

Overholser JC, Schubert DSP, Foliart R, Frost F. Assessment of emotional distress following a spinal cord injury. Rehabilitation Psychology 1993; 38: 187-198.
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rep/38/3/187/

Schurle Bruce A, Arnett PA. Longitudinal study of the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised in Multiple Sclerosis patients. The Clinical Neuropsychologist 2006; 22:46-59.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18338441

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