Citation

Roy-Byrne PP, Russo J, Michelson E, Zatzick D, Pitman RK, Berliner L. Depress. Anxiety 2004; 19(2): 77-84.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98104-2499, USA. roybyrne@u.washington.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/da.10132

PMID

15022142

Abstract

Prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in trauma victims is an important public health goal. Planning for the studies required to validate prevention strategies requires identification of subjects at high risk and recruitment of unbiased samples that represent the larger high-risk population (difficult because of the avoidance of many trauma victims). This study recruited high-risk victims of interpersonal violence (sexual or physical assault) presenting to an urban emergency department for prospective 1- and 3-month follow-up. Of 546 victims who were approached about participating, only 56 agreed to be contacted and only 46 participated in either the 1- or 3-month interviews. Of the 46, 43 had been previously victimized with a mean of over six traumas in the group; 21% had prior PTSD, 85% had prior psychiatric illness, and 37% had prior substance abuse. Sixty-seven percent had positive urine for alcohol or drugs on presentation. Fifty-six percent developed PTSD at 1 or 3 months with the rate declining between 1 and 3 months. There was high use of medical and psychiatric services. These findings document both the difficulty of recruiting large samples of high-risk assault victims to participate in research, and the high rate of prior traumatization, PTSD, substance use, and psychiatric morbidity in these subjects which, if still active at the time of victimization, may complicate efforts to document preventive treatment effects.

Language: en