Tonic immobility in childhood sexual abuse survivors and its relationship to posttraumatic stress symptomatology.

Past research has shown that 37% to 52% of sexual assault survivors report experiencing a set of peritraumatic responses, which include gross motor inhibition, analgesia, and fixed or unfocused staring. This response set closely resembles a set of unconditioned responses, collectively known as Tonic Immobility (TI). This study examined TI among childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors and its relation to PTSD symptomatology.

Development and initial validation of a statistical prediction instrument for assessing combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

Statistical analyses were used to derive and validate a statistical prediction instrument to determine combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) status. Participants were 1081 Vietnam veterans with and without combat-related PTSD. The statistical prediction instrument, which consisted of 12 well-known risk and resilience variables associated with PTSD, proved to be an accurate and efficient means of detecting PTSD among participants and compared well against other existing self-report measures of PTSD.