Using PILOTS for Assessment Information

PILOTS provides a bibliographic citation and each record includes an "Instruments" field listing the psychological and medical assessment instruments used in the research or clinical work reported in the document.

This feature enables PILOTS database users to:

• Determine which instruments were used in the work described in a particular paper
• Determine which published papers have used a particular instrument
• Locate papers whose focus is the description, validation, or use of a particular instrument

To make searching for specific assessment instruments possible, we have established a standard form of the name of each instrument that has been used in papers indexed in the PILOTS Database. These standardized names are assembled in the PILOTS Database Instruments Authority List.

Finding references on a topic connected with assessment instruments

To find papers on a topic connected with assessment instruments, set the pull-down menu to read "Descriptors" and type in the adjacent box one of the following:

• Assessment instruments
• Acute stess disorder assessment instruments
• Dissociation assessment instruments
• Interview schedules
• Projective techniques
• PTSD assessment instruments
• Self report instruments
• Trauma assessment instruments

Finding references that discuss the details of a specific instrument

To find papers that discuss details of using of a specific instrument (as opposed to those in which the instrument is merely noted as having been used), combine these two techniques using both pull-down menus. For example, to look for papers that discuss the use of the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, type

Mississippi Scale in the "Instruments" box and PTSD Assessment Instruments in the "Descriptors" box.