Related Experiment Videos
Prevalence of PTSD in a community sample of older adolescents
S P Cuffe1, C L Addy, C Z Garrison
1Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA.
Objective:
To examine prevalence and correlates of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and diagnosis in older adolescents aged 16 through 22 years.
Method:
The second cycle of a longitudinal epidemiological study in the Southeast included a semistructured interview assessing PTSD symptomatology administered to 490 adolescents.
Results:
Approximately 3% of female subjects and 1% of male subjects satisfied the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD. Females reported more traumatic events than males, and black subjects reported more events than white subjects. Being female (odds ratio = 12.32), experiencing rape or child sexual abuse (odds ratio = 49.37), and witnessing an accident or medical emergency (odds ratio = 85.02) were associated with increased risk of PTSD.
Conclusions:
While relatively few adolescents satisfy the criteria for PTSD, most subjects who experienced a traumatic event reported some PTSD symptoms. Specific types of traumatic events were associated with occurrence of PTSD.