Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in adolescents: risk factors versus resilience moderation.

Background: Exposure to community violence and trauma, stress, and childhood abuse and neglect have been identified as risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among adolescents. Although evidence suggests that resilience may moderate the relationship between some of these risk factors and PTSD symptoms, no studies to date have examined these risk factors collectively.

Aims: Our first aim was to examine the relationship between exposure to community violence, childhood abuse and neglect, perceived stress, and PTSD symptoms.

Clinical correlates of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders in South Africa.

Human immunodeficiency virus-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) occurs globally and across different genetic clades of the virus. However, few studies have examined HAND in South Africa, despite the prevalence of HIV in this region of the world, and the predominance of clade C. The present study examined the relationship between a number of demographic and clinical variables in a sample of 536 patients attending HIV clinics in South Africa.

Posttraumatic stress in AIDS-orphaned children exposed to high levels of trauma: the protective role of perceived social support.

Poor urban children in South Africa are exposed to multiple community traumas, but AIDS-orphaned children are at particular risk for posttraumatic stress. This study examined the hypothesis that social support may moderate the relationship between trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress for this group. Four hundred twenty-five AIDS-orphaned children were interviewed using standardized measures of psychopathology.

Cumulative effect of multiple trauma on symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression in adolescents.

Background: Recent literature has indicated that exposure to multiple traumatic events in adults is associated with high levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Against the backdrop of stressful life events and childhood abuse and neglect, we investigated the cumulative effect of multiple trauma exposure on PTSD, anxiety, and depression in an adolescent sample.

Method: One thousand one hundred forty 10th-grade learners from 9 Cape Town (South Africa) schools completed questionnaires on stressful life experiences; trauma exposure; and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD.