Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 41, Issue 1, January–February 2000, Pages 19-23
Comprehensive Psychiatry

The psychiatric sequelae of civilian trauma

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-440X(00)90126-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Much of the literature on the psychiatric consequences of stress has focused on wartime combat trauma. However, traumatic events also frequently occur in civilian life. Controlled studies on the psychiatric effects of noncombat trauma were reviewed and a meta-analysis of these data was conducted. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, phobia, and major depressive disorder (MDD) were significantly elevated compared with a pooled control group, whereas panic disorder and dysthymic disorder were not significantly increased. These data suggest that the psychiatric effects of civilian trauma include both anxiety and depressive disorders. The results are strikingly similar to those reported in combat veterans, suggesting that severe trauma, even in very different populations, may be associated with similar psychopathology.

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Supported in part by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation, the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seat' Center for Basic and Applied Research in Psychiatric Illness, and the John Schernerhorn Psychiatric Fund (E S. B.).

Presented in part at the 1997 annual meetings of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, May 17, 1997, and the American Psychiatric Association. May 19, 1997, San Diego, CA, and the Society for Neuroscience. October 27, 1997, New Orleans, LA.

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