The relationships between premilitary school record data and risk for posttraumatic stress disorder among Vietnam war veterans

Parental coping in the neonatal intensive care unit

Fifty-six mothers of premature infants who participated in a study to reduce symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) completed the Brief COPE, a self-report inventory of coping mechanisms, the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire to assess acute stress disorder (ASD) and the Davidson Trauma Scale to assess PTSD. 18 % of mothers had baseline ASD while 30 % of mothers met the criteria for PTSD at the 1-month follow-up. Dysfunctional coping as measured by the Brief COPE was positively associated with elevated risk of PTSD in these mothers (RR = 1.09, 95 % CI 1.02-1.15; p = .008). Maternal education was positively associated with PTSD; each year increase in education was associated with a 17 % increase in the relative risk of PTSD at 1 month follow-up (RR = 1.17, 95 % CI 1.02-1.35; p = .03). Results suggest that dysfunctional coping is an important issue to consider in the development of PTSD in parents of premature infants.

Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults

Meta-analyses were conducted on 14 separate risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the moderating effects of various sample and study characteristics, including civilian/military status, were examined. Three categories of risk factor emerged: Factors such as gender, age at trauma, and race that predicted PTSD in some populations but not in others; factors such as education, previous trauma, and general childhood adversity that predicted PTSD more consistently but to a varying extent according to the populations studied and the methods used; and factors such as psychiatric history, reported childhood abuse, and family psychiatric history that had more uniform predictive effects. Individually, the effect size of all the risk factors was modest, but factors operating during or after the trauma, such as trauma severity, lack of social support, and additional life stress, had somewhat stronger effects than pretrauma factors.

Apparent symptom overreporting in combat veterans evaluated for PTSD

Psychometric studies have consistently shown that combat veterans evaluated for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) appear to overreport psychopathology as exhibited by (a) extreme and diffuse levels of psychopathology across instruments measuring different domains of mental illness, and (b) extreme elevations on the validity scale of the MMPI-MMPI-2, in a "fake-bad" direction. The phenomenon of this ubiquitous presentational style is not well understood at present. In this review we describe and delineate the assessment problem posed by this apparent symptom overreporting, and we review the literature regarding several potential explanatory factors. Finally, we address conceptual and practical issues relevant to reaching a better understanding of the phenomenon, and ultimately the clinical syndrome of combat-related PTSD, in both research and clinical settings.

Long-lasting stress sensitisation

Stressful experiences in humans can result in a spectrum of long-term changes in behavioural, autonomic and hormonal responsivity. An extreme form of such alterations is found in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A number of animal models has been developed in which intense stressful experiences (shocks, social confrontations) result in longterm altered responsivity of behavioural, autonomic and hormonal responses to aversive challenges which mimic many of the changes seen in PTSD. These models of stress-induced sensitisation are beginning to generate a better understanding of the vulnerability factors, time-course and underlying neuronal substrates of the long-term disturbances experienced by humans as a result of stressful life events.