Trauma, PTSD Common in Patients With Severe Mental Disorders

Experiencing traumatic experiences and developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more frequent in patients with serious mental illness than in the general population, according to a report in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. The study included 102 patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or schizoaffective disorder, diagnosed using DSM-IV criteria. Epidemiological and clinical data were collected using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and Traumatic Life Events and Distressing Event questionnaires. Researchers found a high number of traumatic experiences in these psychiatric patients, and 15.1 percent of the patients met all PTSD diagnosis criteria. Among patients with a serious mental illness and PTSD, 64.3 percent had made some attempt at suicide at some point in life, compared with 37.4 percent of patients without PTSD. The study, “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Comorbidity and Clinical Implications in Patients With Severe Mental Illness,” is online here. For much more information about PTSD see Psychiatric News, here and here. (Image: Andrii Kondiuk/shutterstock.com)