Psycho-social and Mental Variables and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Traffic Accident Survivors in Northern Iran.

Objective: To assess the psycho-social and mental variables associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a series of Iranian patients.

Methods: A total of 528 eligible accident survivors in pre-sampling of a randomized controlled trial targeting PTSD were included in this cross-sectional study. Psycho-social characteristics associated to PTSD were explored in these survivors in an outpatient clinic. They completed the questionnaires via interview between six weeks to six months after accident. Data collection tools were PSS (DSM-V version) for PTSD and BDI-II for depression and a researcher-made questionnaire for psycho-social variables.

Results: There was a significant association between PTSD and the following variables; family communication, current depression, return to work, history of death of relatives, witnessed the death, length of amnesia, hospitalization, injured situation, and accident severity. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that some variables were associated with PTSD such as accident severity, (<0.001), injured situation, (<0.001), current depression, (<0.001), RTW (<0.001), and family communication (=0.01).

Conclusion: Psychiatric nursing prevention efforts is best directed toward motorcycle depressed drivers with severe accident and poor family communication who do not return to work. Thus, routine assessment of PTSD, depression and psycho-social variables after traffic accidents must be taken into account.