Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Predictive Power of Peritraumatic Dissociation and Acute Stress Symptoms for Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Three-Month Prospective Study

2003; American Psychiatric Association; Volume: 160; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1176/appi.ajp.160.7.1337

1535-7228

Philippe Birmes, Alain Brunet, Didier Carreras, J.-L. Ducassé, Jean-Paul Charlet, D. Lauque, Henri Sztulman, Laurent Schmitt,

Traumatic Brain Injury Research

The authors prospectively examined the power of peritraumatic dissociation and acute stress symptoms in predicting posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.Thirty-five assault victims were assessed with the Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire within 24 hours of the assault. Participants were reassessed 2 weeks after the trauma with the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire and 3 months after the trauma with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale and the Impact of Event Scale. Correlational analyses and a hierarchical multiple regression were conducted.Peritraumatic dissociation and acute stress symptoms were correlated with later PTSD symptoms and diagnosis. Together, peritraumatic dissociation and acute stress symptoms accounted for 33% of the variance in PTSD symptoms.These results support earlier findings that peritraumatic dissociative experiences and acute stress are robust predictors of PTSD. Such symptoms may be of use for identifying at an early stage individuals at highest risk of remaining symptomatic. Future studies should investigate the predictive power of specific peritraumatic and acute stress disorder symptom clusters.