What the PCL-5 measures
The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) comes from the National Center for PTSD. Its 20 questions match the 20 symptoms of PTSD in the DSM-5, the manual clinicians use to diagnose mental health conditions. You answer them with one stressful experience in mind. If more than one comes to mind, choose the one that bothers you most.
The questions fall into four groups: unwanted memories, dreams, and flashbacks (questions 1–5); avoiding reminders (questions 6–7); negative changes in thoughts and mood, such as blame, guilt, or feeling cut off from others (questions 8–14); and feeling on guard, jumpy, irritable, or unable to sleep (questions 15–20). Each asks how much the symptom has bothered you in the past month.
How the PCL-5 is scored
Each answer is worth points: Not at all = 0, A little bit = 1, Moderately = 2, Quite a bit = 3, and Extremely = 4. This page adds up your 20 answers for a total between 0 and 80 and places it in one of four ranges: minimal (0–10), mild (11–20), moderate (21–32), and severe (33–80).
The National Center for PTSD does not publish official severity ranges for the PCL-5, so these ranges are this page's simple guide. What research does offer is a cut point: a total of about 31 to 33 or higher suggests probable PTSD and is a good reason for a full evaluation. On this page, the top range begins at 33.
What a screening can't tell you
A PCL-5 score is not a diagnosis. A licensed clinician diagnoses PTSD through a full evaluation, which looks at:
- What happened. PTSD follows exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence, whether it happened to you, you witnessed it, it happened to someone close to you, or you faced repeated details of it through your work.
- How long symptoms have lasted. Strong reactions in the first weeks after a trauma are common and often ease with time and support. PTSD is diagnosed when symptoms last more than a month and cause real distress or problems in daily life.
- Whether something else fits better. Depression, anxiety, grief, and sleep problems share many of these symptoms.
When to talk to a therapist
Consider reaching out if your total is in the moderate range or higher, if symptoms have lasted more than a month, or if avoidance, nightmares, or feeling on edge are shrinking your life. Reach out right away if you are using alcohol or drugs to cope, or having thoughts of hurting yourself.
Trauma-focused therapies, including Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, and EMDR, have strong research support for PTSD. EMDR is among the approaches used across our team. You don't have to share details of what happened to take this screening, and in therapy you and your therapist decide the pace together.