Pretrauma risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review of the literature
Section snippets
Inclusion criteria and procedure
A systematic review was based on the following sources: PsycINFO, PILOTS, and PubMed. The search terms included forms of the following terms alone and in combination: birth cohort, longitudinal, retrospective, military, posttraumatic stress disorder, prospective, pre-combat, pretrauma, pre-trauma, PTSD, recall, recall bias, premorbid, risk factors and trauma. Thesauruses of the three databases were searched to ensure that appropriate search terms were used. To maximize search effectiveness,
Results
Utilizing the inclusion criteria above, the review yielded a total of 54 articles that were prospective, longitudinal studies of posttraumatic stress. There were no publication date constraints for inclusion in the review; however, no studies published prior to 1991 met the inclusion criteria. All of the studies were prospective in that participants were enrolled prior to index trauma exposure and longitudinal in that they followed participants through trauma exposure and assessed subsequent
Discussion
We systematically reviewed prospective studies of trauma and PTSD to determine how pretrauma factors affected the development of PTSD symptomatology following an index trauma exposure. Categories of pretrauma predictor variables that influenced vulnerability to the disorder were identified. Subsequently, the 54 articles reviewed herein were distilled into six categories of predictors: 1) cognitive abilities; 2) coping and response styles; 3) personality factors; 4) psychopathology; 5)
General conclusions
Although sequelae of trauma can be profound, the conclusions of these 54 studies suggest that not all negative aspects of trauma are outcomes of it; rather these studies suggest that certain factors predispose individuals to PTSD. The major conclusion of this review is that many factors, historically thought to be consequences of trauma, are most likely risk factors for PTSD. More specifically, some studies suggest that the very symptoms of PTSD are, in fact, not symptoms of an index trauma,
References (90)
- et al.
Pretraumatic prolonged elevation of salivary MHPG predicts peritraumatic distress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder
Journal of Psychiatric Research
(2011) - et al.
When the Earth stops shaking: Earthquake sequelae among children diagnosed for pre-earthquake psychopathology
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(1999) - et al.
Pre-trauma verbal ability at five years of age and the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder in adult males and females
Journal of Psychiatric Research
(2012) - et al.
Competitive Memory Training for treating depression and rumination in depressed older adults: A randomized controlled trial
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2011) - et al.
The relationship between neuroticism, pre-traumatic stress, and post-traumatic stress: A prospective study
Personality and Individual Differences
(2003) - et al.
The impact of pretrauma analogue GAD and posttraumatic emotional reactivity following exposure to the September 11 terrorist attacks: A longitudinal study
Behavior Therapy
(2008) - et al.
Exposure to childhood sexual and physical abuse and adjustment in early adulthood
Child Abuse & Neglect
(2008) - et al.
Family psychiatric history, peritraumatic reactivity, and posttraumatic stress symptoms: A prospective study of police
Journal of Psychiatric Research
(2010) - et al.
Relations among peritraumatic dissociation and posttraumatic stress: A meta-analysis
Clinical Psychology Review
(2008) - et al.
Pre-trauma individual differences in extinction learning predict posttraumatic stress
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2013)
Prospective prediction of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms using fear potentiated auditory startle responses
Biological Psychiatry
Glucocorticoid receptor pathway components predict posttraumatic stress disorder symptom development: A prospective study
Biological Psychiatry
Glucocorticoid sensitivity of leukocytes predicts PTSD, depressive and fatigue symptoms after military deployment: A prospective study
Psychoneuroendocrinology
A prospective study on personality and the cortisol awakening response to predict posttraumatic stress symptoms in response to military deployment
Journal of Psychiatric Research
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
Adult mental health and social outcomes of adolescent girls with depression and conduct disorder
Development and Psychopathology
Association of predeployment gaze bias for emotion stimuli with later symptoms of PTSD and depression in soldiers deployed in Iraq
The American Journal of Psychiatry
Association of FKBP5 polymorphisms and childhood abuse with risk of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in adults
JAMA : The Journal of the American Medical Association
Is youth victimization related to trauma symptoms and depression after controlling for prior symptoms and family relationships? A longitudinal, prospective study
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Predeployment personality traits and exposure to trauma as predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms: A prospective study of former peacekeepers
The American Journal of Psychiatry
Traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder in an urban population of young adults
Archives of General Psychiatry
Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in the community: The 1996 Detroit Area Survey of Trauma
Archives of General Psychiatry
Intelligence and other predisposing factors in exposure to trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder
Archives of General Psychiatry
The structure of posttraumatic stress disorder
Archives of General Psychiatry
Maladaptive self-appraisals before trauma exposure predict posttraumatic stress disorder
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
A prospective study of psychophysiological arousal, acute stress disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Impaired specific autobiographical memory as a risk factor for posttraumatic stress after trauma
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Pre-Katrina mental illness, postdisaster negative cognitions, and PTSD symptoms in male veterans following Hurricane Katrina
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy
Traumatic events and posttraumatic stress in childhood
Archives of General Psychiatry
Genetics of post-traumatic stress disorder: Review and recommendations for genome-wide association studies
Current Psychiatry Reports
Personality in adulthood: A six-year longitudinal study of self-reports and spouse ratings on the NEOPersonality inventory
Journal of Persoanlity and Social Psychology
Exposure to violence and PTSD symptoms among Somali women
Journal of Traumatic Stress
Coping style in predicting posttraumatic stress disorder among Israeli students
Anxiety, Stress, & Coping: An International Journal
Personality traits, coping style, and perceived threat as predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder after exposure to a terrorist attack: A prospective study
Psychosomatic Medicine
Auditory startle response in firefighters before and after trauma exposure
The American Journal of Psychiatry
Extinction learning before trauma and subsequent posttraumatic stress
Psychosomatic Medicine
Predicting posttraumatic stress symptoms from pretraumatic risk factors: A 2-year prospective follow-up study in firefighters
The American Journal of Psychiatry
Risk factors for posttrauma reactions in police officers: A longitudinal study
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey
Archives of General Psychiatry
Posttraumatic stress disorder and retrospectively reported stressor exposure: A longitudinal prediction model
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Do personality traits predict post-traumatic stress?: A prospective study in civilians experiencing air attacks
Psychological Medicine
The developmental mental-disorder histories of adults with posttraumatic stress disorder: A prospective longitudinal birth cohort study
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Early childhood factors associated with the development of post-traumatic stress disorder: Results from a longitudinal birth cohort
Psychological Medicine
Cited by (208)
Pre-trauma memory contextualization as predictor for PTSD-like behavior in male rats
2024, Journal of Psychiatric ResearchPosttraumatic stress symptoms, posttraumatic growth, and personality factors: A network analysis
2023, Journal of Affective DisordersPrior Sexual Trauma Exposure Impacts Posttraumatic Dysfunction and Neural Circuitry Following a Recent Traumatic Event in the AURORA Study
2023, Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science