Longitudinal course and predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms after spinal cord injury.

Objective: This study examined longitudinal changes in post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in individuals newly diagnosed with spinal cord injury (SCI) and tested various psychosocial and injury-related characteristics as predictors for interindividual differences in symptom courses.

Design: Longitudinal data from the larger Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study were used. The sample consisted of 269 patients (70.