Paediatric Index of Emotional Distress

A brief and easy-to-use self rating scale that screens children and young adults for emotional distress.

Author(s): Suzy O'Connor, Terri Carney, Emma House, Eamonn Ferguson and Rory O'Connor

Age Range: 8 - 16 years

Administration: Individual

Timings: 5 - 10 minutes

The complete set contains the Manual and 100 record forms.

Based on the popular Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the PI-ED can be used with a paediatric population in a range of clinical and educational settings. Quick and easy to administer, the scale asks children and young people about their symptoms of anxiety and depression. A concrete cut-off score then clearly identifies children most in need of further clinical assessment and intervention.

• Like HADS, PI-ED is a valid, reliable and clinically useful screening measure
• Briefer than comparable measures, easy to score and simple to interpret
• The only UK-standardised measure of emotional distress that is psychometrically robust in a large non-clinical and clinical sample across the 8-16 age range
• Can be used by both mental health workers and non specialists
• Facilitates the early identification of mental health problems and aids referral to appropriate services with clear cut-off scores to indicate increased risk of psychiatric morbidity
• Highly cost effective - as a single measure of emotional distress it removes the need for separate measures of anxiety and depression or different measures for different age ranges
• Ideal for use as a screening measure, an index of clinical change and as an outcome measure.