title: Peritraumatic reactions and posttraumatic stress disorder in psychiatrically impaired youth.
abstract: Although peritraumatic dissociation and other subjective peritraumatic reactions, such as emotional distress and arousal, have been shown to affect the relationship between a traumatic event and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults, systematic studies with youth have not been done. In a mixed ethnic and racial sample of 90 psychiatrically impaired youth (ages 10-18, 56% boys), we investigated the contributions of peritraumatic dissociation, emotional distress, and arousal to current PTSD severity after accounting for the effects of gender, trauma history, trait dissociation, and psychopathology (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and depression). Peritraumatic dissociation emerged as the only peritraumatic variable associated with current PTSD severity assessed both by questionnaire and interview methods (β = .30 and .47 p < .01). Peritraumatic dissociation can be rapidly assessed in clinical practice and warrants further testing in prospective studies as a potential mediator of the trauma-PTSD relationship in youth.
authors.affiliation: Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033, USA. jsugar@usc.edu
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sugar
authors.forename: Julian D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ford
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D057566:Self Report; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000503:physiopathology*