Development and validation of a short-form (6-item) version of the clinician-administered dissociative states scale (CADSS-SF).
European journal of psychotraumatology December 1, 2026 V Ursule Taujanskaite, Sunjeev K Kamboj
A 6-item short form of the Clinician Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS-SF) was developed using data from three studies of nitrous oxide in 229 healthy volunteers, then validated in 80 separate participants. The single-factor scale, composed of derealization and depersonalization items, showed excellent model fit and internal consistency (omega = 0.87), correlated strongly with the full 19-item CADSS (r ≥ 0.88), and moderately with a measure of psychotomimesis (r = 0.63). The CADSS-SF enables rapid, repeated assessment of dissociation during drug intoxication without disrupting the experience, but primarily captures derealization and depersonalization and requires further validation beyond drug-induced dissociation in healthy populations.