Pathways to PTSD, part I: Children with burns.

Am J Psychiatry

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Dowling 1 North, 1 Boston Medical Center Place, Boston, MA 02118, USA.

Published: July 2005

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study aimed to understand the risk factors for PTSD in children who suffered from acute burns.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 72 hospitalized children aged 7 to 17, utilizing various self-report measures during and post-hospitalization.
  • The results revealed two main pathways leading to PTSD: one involving the size of the burn and pain influencing acute separation anxiety, and another linking burn size to acute dissociation, together explaining nearly 60% of PTSD symptoms.

Article Abstract

Objective: The goal of this study was to develop a model of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a group of acutely burned children.

Method: Seventy-two children between the ages of 7 and 17 who were admitted to the hospital for an acute burn were eligible for study. Members of families who consented completed the Child PTSD Reaction Index, the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, and other self-report measures of psychopathology and environmental stress both during the hospitalization and 3 months following the burn. A path analytic strategy was used to build a model of risk factors for PTSD.

Results: Two pathways to PTSD were discerned: 1) from the size of the burn and level of pain following the burn to the child's level of acute separation anxiety, and then to PTSD, and 2) from the size of the burn to the child's level of acute dissociation following the burn, and then to PTSD. Together these pathways accounted for almost 60% of the variance in PTSD symptoms and constituted a model with excellent fit indices.

Conclusions: These findings support a model of complex etiology for childhood PTSD in which two independent pathways may be mediated by different biobehavioral systems.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.162.7.1299DOI Listing

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