A meta-analysis of cognitive functioning in older adults with PTSD.

A meta-analysis was conducted to summarize and integrate the literature on the cognitive functioning of older adults with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We hypothesized that those with PTSD would exhibit worse performance in each of the cognitive domains studied when compared to older adults without PTSD. Major databases were queried and eleven articles met criteria for review.

Abbreviated Posttraumatic Stress Screen for Ethnically Diverse Older Women.

It is difficult for busy health care providers to perform routine screening for older women's posttraumatic stress symptomatology, due, at least partially, to a paucity of instruments specifically tested on such a population. To address this issue, in this preliminarily study we tested an abbreviated screen from the set of 20 items comprising the Distressing Event Questionnaire (DEQ; Kubany, Leisen, Kaplan, & Kelly, 2000) on a convenience sample of 94 ethnically diverse older women (ages 52-105). This new 5-item derivation, named "Brief Posttraumatic Stress Screening Scale (BPSSS)", assesses posttraumatic stress based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - IV (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994).