Impingement of emotion reactivity to post-traumatic stress disorder among amputees

To find out the moderating effect of emotion reactivity and several demographic variables following symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder among individuals having undergone an amputation.

The cross-sectional study was conducted from March to July 2015 at the Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan, and comprised individuals, enrolled from difference orthopaedic and rehabilitation centres, aged 18-60 years having undergone amputation of upper or lower limb either because of diseases, like diabetes, gangrene, cancer ulcer, or because of traumatic injuries, like road accident, electrical shock. Assessment of the study variables was done using the Emotion Reactivity Scale and the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5. Data was analysed using SPSS 21.

Of the 160 subjects, 117(72%) were males and 43(28%) were females. The overall mean age was 38.45±13.17 years. Upper limb amputation cases were 17(10.6%), lower limb 138(86.2%) and both upper and lower limb amputation 5(3.2%). Amputation due to any disease was the case with 76(47.5%) subjects, while traumatic injury was the cause in 84(52.5%). There was a significant positive association of emotional reactivity with symptoms severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (p<0.05).

Post-amputation effects were found to have a significant impact on individual emotions, and traumatic flashbacks had a leading role in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms severity.