Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2017 Mar;9(2):138-146.
doi: 10.1037/tra0000147. Epub 2016 Jun 16.

Trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms after civilian or deployment traumatic event experiences

David S Fink  1 , Sarah Lowe  1 , Gregory H Cohen  1 , Laura A Sampson  2 , Robert J Ursano  3 , Robert K Gifford  3 , Carol S Fullerton  3 , Sandro Galea  4
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms after civilian or deployment traumatic event experiences

David S Fink et al. Psychol Trauma. 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: Growth mixture model studies have observed substantial differences in the longitudinal patterns of posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) trajectories. This variability could represent chance iterations of some prototypical trajectories or measurable variability induced by some aspect of the source population or traumatic event experience. Testing the latter, the authors analyzed a nationally representative sample of U.S. Reserve and National Guard members to identify the influence of civilian versus deployment trauma on the number of PTSS trajectories, the nature of these trajectories, and the proportion of respondents in each trajectory.

Method: Data were collected from 2010 to 2013 and latent class growth analysis was used to identify different patterns of PTSS in persons exposed to both a civilian and a deployment trauma and to test whether respondents' exposure to civilian trauma developed similar or distinct patterns of response compared to respondents exposed to deployment trauma.

Results: PTSS were found to follow 3 trajectories, with respondents predominantly clustered in the lowest symptom trajectory for both trauma types. Covariates associated with each trajectory were similar between the 2 traumas, except number of civilian-related traumatic events; specifically, a higher number of civilian traumatic events was associated with membership in the borderline-stable, compared to low-consistent, trajectory, for civilian traumas and associated with the preexisting chronic trajectory for military traumas.

Conclusions: Holding the source population constant, PTSS trajectory models were similar for civilian and deployment-related trauma, suggesting that irrespective of traumatic event experienced there might be some universal trajectory patterns. Thus, the differences in source populations may have induced the heterogeneity observed among prior PTSS trajectory studies. (PsycINFO Database Record

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) over time for Reserve and National Guard service members exposed to a civilian or deployment trauma. a: Trajectories of PTSS for a civilian trauma; b: Trajectories for PTSS for military trauma.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Association for Public Opinion Research Standard Definitions: Final Dispositions of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys. 2011 Retrieved from Lenexa, KS.
    1. American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV-TR: Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, text revision. 2000
    1. Armour C, Shevlin M, Elklit A, Mroczek D. A Latent Growth Mixture Modeling Approach to PTSD Symptoms in Rape Victims. Traumatology (Tallahass Fla) 2012;18(1):20–28. doi:10.1177/1534765610395627. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bakker AB, Demerouti E. The job demands-resources model: State of the art. Journal of managerial psychology. 2007;22(3):309–328.
    1. Blanchard EB, Jones-Alexander J, Buckley TC, Forneris CA. Psychometric properties of the PTSD Checklist (PCL) Behaviour Research and Therapy. 1996;34(8):669–673. - PubMed

Publication types