Short-term follow-up of post-traumatic stress symptoms in motor vehicle accident victims.
Ninety-eight victims of recent motor vehicle accidents (MVA), who sought medical attention as a result of the MVA, were followed up prospectively 6 months after the initial assessment, using Keller, Lavori, Friedman, Nielsen, Endicott, McDonald-Scott and Andreasen's (Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 540-548, 1987) LIFE methodology so that month-by-month changes in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms could be determined. For the 40 MVA victims who initially met the full criteria for PTSD, 10 no longer met the criteria 4 months after the initial assessment, a decrease significant at the P < 0.01 level, and 20 no longer met the full criteria at 6 months (P < 0.001). On a symptom-by-symptom basis, there were significant declines among the fraction of those who initially met the criteria for PTSD for all avoidance and numbing symptoms by the 6-month follow-up, whereas most of the hyperarousal symptoms did not show significant declines.
Blanchard
E B
EB
Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders, University at Albany-SUNY 12203, USA.
Hickling
E J
EJ
Vollmer
A J
AJ
Loos
W R
WR
Buckley
T C
TC
Jaccard
J
J
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001143:Arousal; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology