title: Psychiatric comorbidity of full and partial posttraumatic stress disorder among older adults in the United States: results from wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To present findings on the prevalence, correlates, and psychiatric comorbidity of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and partial PTSD in a nationally representative sample of U.S. older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Face-to-face interviews with 9,463 adults age 60 years and older in the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sociodemographic correlates; worst stressful experiences; comorbid lifetime mood, anxiety, substance use, and personality disorders; psychosocial functioning; and suicide attempts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Lifetime prevalences ± standard errors of PTSD and partial PTSD were 4.5% ± 0.25 and 5.5% ± 0.27, respectively. Rates were higher in women (5.7% ± 0.37 and 6.5% ± 0.39) than in men (3.1% ± 0.31 and 4.3% ± 0.37). Older adults with PTSD most frequently identified unexpected death of someone close, serious illness or injury to someone close, and their own serious or life-threatening illness as their worst stressful events. Older adults exposed to trauma but without full or partial PTSD and respondents with partial PTSD most often identified unexpected death of someone close, serious illness or injury to someone close, and indirect experience of 9/11 as their worst events. PTSD was associated with elevated odds of lifetime mood, anxiety, drug use, and borderline and narcissistic personality disorders and decreased psychosocial functioning. Partial PTSD was associated with elevated odds of mood, anxiety, and narcissistic and schizotypal personality disorders and poorer psychosocial functioning relative to older adults exposed to trauma but without full or partial PTSD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PTSD among older adults in the United States is slightly more prevalent than previously reported and is associated with considerable psychiatric comorbidity and psychosocial dysfunction. Partial PTSD is associated with significant psychiatric comorbidity, particularly with mood and other anxiety disorders.
authors.affiliation: From the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA. robert.pietrzak@yale.edu
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Pietrzak
authors.forename: Risë B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Southwick
authors.forename: Bridget F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Grant
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology