22-item self-report measure of post-traumatic stress symptoms. ≈ 5 min to complete. Free with attribution.
IES-R (Impact of Event Scale-Revised) is a validated clinical instrument used to assess 22-item self-report measure of post-traumatic stress symptoms.. It is most often used for 22-item self-report measure of post-traumatic stress symptoms.. The instrument contains 22 items. Typical administration time is ≈ 5 min.
Source / attribution: Free to use with citation
22-item self-report measure of post-traumatic stress symptoms. IES-R is part of standard practice in this setting because it provides a structured, replicable assessment that can be tracked over time and compared across patients or visits.
Like all screening or assessment instruments, IES-R is a structured aid — not a diagnostic test in isolation. Results should be interpreted alongside history, examination, and clinical context. Where a score crosses an actionable threshold, the next step is typically a more detailed clinical evaluation rather than a definitive diagnosis.
Answer all 22 items below to see your IES-R score and interpretation.
Each item is scored on a 5-point scale (0–4). Your score updates live as you answer.
All scoring runs in your browser. No data is sent anywhere — close the tab and the answers are gone.
Sum all 22 items scored 0-4. Total range 0-88. Three subscales: Intrusion, Avoidance, Hyperarousal.
Scoring notes: Sum all 22 items scored 0-4. Total range 0-88. Three subscales: Intrusion, Avoidance, Hyperarousal.
The cutoffs below are drawn from the published validation literature. Always interpret in clinical context.
| Score range | Band | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 0–23 | Subclinical | Monitor |
| 24–32 | Mild PTSD | Consider treatment |
| 33–88 | Moderate-Severe PTSD | Active treatment |
This is an illustrative walkthrough, not a real patient. Follow the same four steps with your own answers — or use the live calculator at the top of this page.
Read each question and choose the response that best fits. Each response has a number next to it — that number is the item's score. The example below uses illustrative answers.
| # | Item | Example response | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Any reminder brought back feelings about it | A little bit | 1 |
| 2 | I had trouble staying asleep | A little bit | 1 |
| 3 | Other things kept making me think about it | A little bit | 1 |
| 4 | I felt irritable and angry | A little bit | 1 |
| 5 | I avoided letting myself get upset when I thought about it or was reminded of it | A little bit | 1 |
| 6 | I thought about it when I didn't mean to | A little bit | 1 |
| 7 | I felt as if it hadn't happened or wasn't real | A little bit | 1 |
| 8 | I stayed away from reminders about it | A little bit | 1 |
| 9 | Pictures about it popped into my mind | A little bit | 1 |
| 10 | I was jumpy and easily startled | A little bit | 1 |
| 11 | I tried not to think about it | A little bit | 1 |
| 12 | I was aware that I still had a lot of feelings about it, but I didn't deal with them | Moderately | 2 |
| 13 | My feelings about it were kind of numb | A little bit | 1 |
| 14 | I found myself acting or feeling as though I was back at that time | Moderately | 2 |
| 15 | I had trouble falling asleep | A little bit | 1 |
| 16 | I had waves of strong feelings about it | Moderately | 2 |
| 17 | I tried to remove it from my memory | A little bit | 1 |
| 18 | I had trouble concentrating | Moderately | 2 |
| 19 | Reminders of it caused me to have physical reactions, such as sweating, trouble breathing, nausea, or a pounding heart | A little bit | 1 |
| 20 | I had dreams about it | Moderately | 2 |
| 21 | I felt watchful or on guard | A little bit | 1 |
| 22 | I tried not to talk about it | Moderately | 2 |
Add up all the item scores you noted in Step 1.
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + … (items 9–22 sum to 20) = 28
Find the row in the interpretation table whose range contains your total:
Total = 28 falls between 24 and 32 → Mild PTSD
Mild PTSD. Consider treatment
A score is one input alongside history and examination. IES-R supports clinical judgment — it does not replace it.
Psychometric figures are drawn from the validation literature and may vary across clinical populations and translations.
If IES-R doesn't fit your context, related instruments in trauma include:
| Scale | Measures | Items | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCL-5 | 20-item self-report measure of DSM-5 PTSD symptom severity. | 20 | ≈ 5 min |
| PCL-C | 17-item civilian version of PTSD Checklist based on DSM-IV. | 17 | ≈ 5 min |
| LEC-5 | 17-item self-report measure of exposure to potentially traumatic events. | 17 | ≈ 3 min |
| PHQ-9 | Severity of depression | 9 | ≈ 3 minutes |
| GAD-7 | Severity of generalized anxiety | 7 | ≈ 2 minutes |
| AUDIT | 10-item WHO screening tool for hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence. | 10 | ≈ 3 min |
| CHA2DS2-VASc | Annual stroke risk in non-valvular atrial fibrillation | 8 | — |
| Glasgow Coma Scale | Level of consciousness after head injury | 3 | — |
IES-R (Impact of Event Scale-Revised) is a validated instrument that assesses post-traumatic stress symptoms. It is designed for clinicians, medical students, evidence-synthesis researchers. It takes about 5 min to complete, and the 22 items are summed to produce a total score.
IES-R typically takes about 5 min to administer. The exact duration varies a little depending on whether it is self-administered or completed with a clinician. Its brief format is part of what makes it practical for routine clinical use and for repeat administration when tracking change over time.
IES-R contains 22 items. Item scores are summed to produce the total. Scores run from 0 to 88, grouped into 3 interpretation bands from ‘Subclinical’ up to ‘Moderate-Severe PTSD’.
On the IES-R (total score 0–88), scores of 33–88 fall in the ‘Moderate-Severe PTSD’ band — interpreted as: Active treatment. The full ladder is: 0–23 — Subclinical: Monitor.; 24–32 — Mild PTSD: Consider treatment.; 33–88 — Moderate-Severe PTSD: Active treatment. A higher score reflects a more severe presentation, and crossing a cutoff is a prompt to step up assessment or care — but these bands are screening thresholds, not diagnoses.
Scores of 0–23 fall in the ‘Subclinical’ band: Monitor. A low score is reassuring but does not by itself rule out the underlying condition — if symptoms or clinical suspicion persist, reassess over time or use a complementary evaluation rather than relying on the number alone.
IES-R has reported Cronbach's α of 0.96 in validation samples and test–retest reliability of 0.92. Excellent reliability; widely used in trauma research. In practical terms, a Cronbach’s α around 0.96 indicates excellent internal consistency (the items hang together well), and a test–retest reliability of 0.92 means scores are strongly stable when the scale is repeated without real clinical change.
IES-R is free to use with attribution — clinical, educational, and research use is permitted provided the original source is credited. If you publish results or reproduce the scale, include the citation to the source paper.
Weiss, D. S., & Marmar, C. R. (1997). The Impact of Event Scale-Revised. In J. P. Wilson & T. M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD (pp. 399-411). Guilford Press. This is the original publication for the IES-R — the reference to cite when reporting results.
No. IES-R is a structured assessment aid, not a diagnostic test. Its proper role is clinical assessment of post-traumatic stress symptoms — it standardizes assessment and flags who needs closer evaluation, but the result must be weighed alongside history, examination, and clinical context. When a score conflicts with your clinical impression, clinical judgment takes precedence; treatment decisions should never rest on a screening score alone.
IES-R is supported by the following peer-reviewed sources: