title: The role of intelligence in posttraumatic stress disorder: does it vary by trauma severity?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Only a small minority of trauma victims develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suggesting that victims vary in their predispositions to the PTSD response to stressors. It is assumed that the role of predispositions in PTSD varies by trauma severity: when stressors are less severe, predispositions play a bigger role. In this study, we test whether the role of intelligence in PTSD varies by trauma severity. Specifically, does low intelligence plays a bigger part among victims of lower magnitude stressors than among victims of extreme stressors?
  
  
  METHODS
  Data come from a longitudinal study of randomly selected sample in Southeast Michigan (n = 713). IQ was measured at age 6. PTSD was measured at age 17, using the NIMH-DIS for DSM-IV. Stressors were classified as extreme if they involved assaultive violence (e.g. rape, sexual assault, threatened with a weapon); other stressors in the list (e.g. disaster, accidents) were classified as lower magnitude. Assaultive violence victims had experienced assaultive violence plus other event types or only assaultive violence. Victims of other stressors were participants who had never experienced assaultive violence. We compared the influence of age 6 IQ on PTSD among persons exposed to assaultive violence vs. other stressors, using multinomial logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relative risk ratio (RRR) for PTSD associated with a one point drop in age 6 IQ among victims of assaultive violence was 1.04 (95% CI 1.01, 1.06); among victims of other stressors, it was 1.03 (95% CI 0.99, 1.06). A comparison of the two RRRs indicates no significant difference between the two estimates (p = 0.652). IQ does not play a bigger role in PTSD among victims of other stressors than it does among victims of assaultive violence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lower IQ exerts an adverse PTSD effect on trauma victims, with no evidence of variability by the severity of trauma they have experienced.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America. breslau@msu.edu
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Breslau
authors.forename: Qiaoling
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhehui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008824:Michigan / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012742:Sex Offenses; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014754:Violence