Avoidant symptoms cloaking the diagnosis of PTSD in patients with severe accidental injury

✍ Scribed by Richard S. Epstein

• Book ID: 102447765
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 443 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.2490060404

✦ Synopsis

In a pilot stuay of seriously injured accident victims, 15 patients selected in inirial intake interviews were followed at 9to 10-week intervals for 9 months after ahisswn to a community shock-trauma center. Psychiarric diagnoses were based on a structured psychiatric interview. A total of sir patients met criteria for PTSD. In two cases, PTSD was not diagnosed until 3 to 6 months aj?er injuty, primarily because of severe avoidant symptomatology. In another case, intrusive and arousal symptom were not immediately explainable as a manifestation of PTSD, because it was mistaken4 believed that the patient had been unconscious during the accident. Diagnosis in two of these would probably have been missed without frequent follow-up interviews. Findings suggest that avoidant symptom of PTSD can interfere with diagnosis. This has important consequences for outcome studies. It is suggested that frequent follow-up aper a traumatic event may reduce the level of false negatives in population studies.