Understanding the interpersonal impact of trauma: Contributions of PTSD and depression☆
Section snippets
Understanding the interpersonal impact of trauma: contributions of PTSD and depression
For several decades, it has been recognized that patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a reduced quality of life (QOL; Mendlowicz & Stein, 2000). A recent meta-analysis suggests that PTSD exerts a particularly large negative impact on physical health, social functioning, and relationships with close others, relative to other anxiety disorders (Olatunji, Cisler, & Tolin, 2007). Although the association between PTSD and impaired functioning has been clearly established, little
Participants
The sample included 109 individuals who sought assessment and possible treatment for mental health problems following their MVA. Participants were recruited from the community, using flyers distributed at pain clinics, a local trauma center, physical therapists, specialists in rehabilitation and internal medicine, gyms, and libraries, as well as public service announcements. Individuals qualified for assessment if they had experienced a MVA involving actual or threatened death or serious injury
Results
The data were evaluated for the presence of univariate and multivariate outliers and none were detected. Additionally, skew and kurtosis values were examined. All were in the normal range (i.e., skew values less than 2, kurtosis values less than 4, Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001), suggesting that the data exhibited normality.
Table 1 presents the zero-order correlations and the means and standard deviations of the variables. As can be seen, depression showed significant negative correlations with CSI
Discussion
This study examined the separate influences of PTSD symptoms and depression on interpersonal functioning with friends, romantic partners, and family. Building on previous research, hierarchical models were tested in which the four PTSD symptoms clusters were entered in the first step, followed by depression in the second step. To examine the influence of assessment modality, interpersonal functioning was evaluated with both an interviewer-administered scale, which quantified relationship
Acknowledgement
We appreciate Joanne Davila’s comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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This project was supported in part by National Research Service Award MH 075130 and by Research Grant MH 64777 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
- 1
Now at the University of Memphis, USA.
- 2
Now at Oklahoma State University, USA.
- 3
Now at Stanford University Medical School, USA.