• Douglas Zatzick, Gregory Jurkovich, Joan Russo, Peter Roy-Byrne, Wayne Katon, Amy Wagner, Chris Dunn, Edwina Uehara, David Wisner, and Frederick Rivara.
• Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98104-2499, USA. dzatzick@u.washington.edu
• J Trauma. 2004 Aug 1;57(2):360-6.

BackgroundInjured survivors of individual and mass trauma receive their initial evaluation in acute care. Few investigations have comprehensively screened for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and related comorbidities across sites.MethodsThis investigation included 269 randomly selected injury survivors hospitalized at two level 1 trauma centers. All patients were screened for PTSD, depressive, and peritraumatic dissociative symptoms during their surgical inpatient admission. Prior traumatic life events and alcohol abuse/dependence also were assessed.ResultsIn this study, 58% of the patients demonstrated high levels of immediate posttraumatic distress or alcohol abuse/dependence. Regression analyses identified greater prior trauma, female gender, nonwhite ethnicity, and site as significant independent predictors for high levels of posttraumatic distress.ConclusionsHigh levels of posttraumatic distress, recurrent trauma, and alcohol abuse/dependence were present in more than half of acute care inpatients. Early mental health screening and intervention procedures that target both PTSD and alcohol use should be developed for acute care settings.

43 keywords...

hide…