Trajectory of post-traumatic stress and depression among children and adolescents following single-incident trauma

Zhang, Joyce, Meiser-Stedman, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0262-623X, Jones, Bobby, Smith, Patrick, Dalgleish, Tim, Boyle, Adrian, Edwards, Andrea, Subramanyam, Devasena, Dixon, Clare, Sinclaire-Harding, Lysandra, Schweizer, Susanne, Newby, Jill and McKinnon, Anna (2022) Trajectory of post-traumatic stress and depression among children and adolescents following single-incident trauma. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 13 (1). ISSN 2000-8066

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Abstract

Objective: Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression have high comorbidity. Understanding their relationship is of clinical and theoretical importance. A comprehensive way to understand post-trauma psychopathology is through symptom trajectories. This study aims to look at the developmental courses of PTSD and depression symptoms and their interrelationship in the initial months post-trauma in children and adolescents. Methods: Two-hundred-and-seventeen children and adolescents aged between eight and 17 exposed to single-event trauma were included in the study. Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and depression symptoms were measured at 2 weeks, 2 months and 9 months, with further psychological variables measured at the 2-week assessment. Group-based trajectory modelling (GBTM) was applied to estimate the latent developmental clusters of the two outcomes. Logistic regression was used to identify predictors associated with high symptom groups. Results: The GBTM yielded a three-group model for PTSS and a three-group model for depression. PTSS trajectories showed symptoms reduced to a non-clinical level by 9 months for all participants (if they were not already in the non-clinical range): participants were observed to be resilient (42.4%) or recovered within 2 months (35.6%), while 21.9% experienced high level PTSS but recovered by 9 months post-trauma. The depression symptom trajectories predicted a chronic non-recovery group (20.1%) and two mild symptom groups (45.9%, 34.0%). Further analysis showed high synchronicity between PTSS and depression groups. Peri-event panic, negative appraisals, rumination and thought suppression at 2 weeks predicted slow recovery from PTSS. Pre-trauma wellbeing, post-trauma anxiety and negative appraisals predicted chronic depression. Conclusions: Post-trauma depression was more persistent than PTSS at 9 months in the sampled population. Cognitive appraisal was the shared risk factor to high symptom groups of both PTSS and depression.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Uncontrolled Keywords: gbtm,lcga,ptsd,comorbidity,computational phenotyping,depression,trajectory,psychiatry and mental health ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2738
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Mental Health
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 26 Jan 2022 16:30
Last Modified: 25 Oct 2024 23:56
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/83165
DOI: 10.1080/20008198.2022.2037906

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