Ten-year follow-up study of PTSD diagnosis, symptom severity and psychosocial indices in aging holocaust survivors.

Objective: We performed a longitudinal study of holocaust survivors with and without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by assessing symptoms and other measures at two intervals, approximately 10 years apart.

Method: The original cohort consisted of 63 community-dwelling subjects, of whom 40 were available for follow-up.

Results: There was a general diminution in PTSD symptom severity over time.

Ten-year follow-up study of cortisol levels in aging holocaust survivors with and without PTSD.

To investigate the longitudinal course of mean 24-hour urinary cortisol excretion in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the authors evaluated 24-hour cortisol excretion in 28 Holocaust survivors 10 years after obtaining an initial estimate. Cortisol levels increased in participants whose PTSD had remitted (n = 3) but declined in participants who developed PTSD (n = 3) or whose PTSD status did not change over time (PTSD+: n = 14, PTSD-: n = 8). Cortisol levels at Time 1 predicted diagnostic status change better than psychological variables, including exposure to traumatic events between assessments.

Alexithymia in Holocaust survivors with and without PTSD.

Alexithymia was measured in non-treatment seeking, community-dwelling Holocaust survivors using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-Twenty Item Version (TAS-20). Scores of survivors with (n = 30) and without (n = 26) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were compared, and associations among alexithymia, severity of trauma, and severity of PTSD symptoms were determined. Survivors with PTSD had significantly higher scores on the TAS-20 compared to survivors without PTSD.