The SCL-90-R24 is a 90-item questionnaire on 5-point Likert scale (0–4) assessing nine primary symptom dimensions: somatization (SOM), obsessive-compulsive symptoms (O-C), interpersonal sensitivity (I-S), depression (DEP), anxiety (ANX), hostility (HOS), phobic anxiety (PAR), paranoid ideation (PAR) and psychoticism (PSY). Furthermore, seven additional items assess disturbances in appetite and sleep (OTHER). The SCL-90-R also provides a global severity index (GSI) which is designed to measure overall psychological distress. Higher scores indicate more psychological symptoms in each subscale as well as a higher degree of distress, higher intensity of symptoms, and more self-reported symptoms27. In the present study, a previously validated Italian version of the scale was used27 and the Cronbach’s alpha in the present sample was 0.92.
