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SUD
Subjective Units of Distress Scale
The level of distress or anxiety the person feels here and now, as they rate it themselves.
Format
A self-rating from 0 (no distress) to 100 — often reduced to 0-10 — taken several times within a session to track the decline in arousal.
Origin
Introduced by the psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe in 1969, as part of systematic desensitisation.
Related therapies
Version française : Échelle subjective de détresse (SUD)