title: Understanding comorbidity between PTSD and substance use disorders: two preliminary investigations.
abstract: While there is high level of comorbidity of PTSD and substance use disorders (SUDs), little research has focused on the overlapping symptom constellation characteristic of both PTSD and substance use/withdrawal. This report describes two preliminary investigations that address this area. In the first study, the pattern of PTSD symptoms in a sample of women (n = 28) seeking treatment for a SUD and comorbid with PTSD was compared with the symptom pattern of a sample of women (n = 28) with PTSD only. The PTSD + SUD group evidenced significantly more symptoms in the avoidance and arousal symptom clusters than the PTSD-only group. At the individual symptom level, the PTSD + SUD group reported significantly more sleep disturbance than the PTSD-only group. It was also determined that the PTSD + SUD group reported greater traumatic-event exposure than the PTSD-only group. In the second study, PTSD symptoms were compared in a sample of alcohol- dependent and a sample of cocaine-dependent individuals with PTSD. The alcohol- dependent group exhibited significantly more arousal symptoms than the cocaine-dependent group. Implications of the results for the assessment of individuals with comorbid PTSD and SUDs are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425-0742, USA.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Saladin
authors.forename: K T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Brady
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Dansky
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Kilpatrick
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal; D003042:Cocaine; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D003042:Cocaine