Post-traumatic stress and disability

Abstract

Background: Post-traumatic stress is thought to account for significant disability. It is also known to be highly comorbid with other psychiatric conditions such as depression and alcohol dependence. Aims: To determine the relationship between post-traumatic stress, depression, alcohol dependence and disability. Method: Seventy armed services personnel were assessed for DSM-IV diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence, and with continuous measures of symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression and alcohol dependence following a traumatic event. These variables, as predictors of disability (using the Sheehan Disability Scale), were analysed using multivariate analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and multiple regression backward elimination models. Results: No significant interaction was found for the diagnostic variables even after controlling for the continuous symptom measures. In the regression models, symptoms of depression were a significant predictor of total disability (R 2=0.39). Symptoms of alcohol dependence and post-traumatic stress did not sigrif icantly predict disability. Conclusions: Since post-traumatic stress was not found to be associated with disability, its clinical importance may be questionable.