Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 31, Issue 3, May–June 1990, Pages 227-237
Comprehensive Psychiatry

Appropriateness of DSM-III-R criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-440X(90)90006-EGet rights and content

Abstract

This research examines the DSM-IIIR criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study questions whether the psychiatric sequelae resulting from exposure to extraordinary traumatic events (stressor criterion A) do in fact differ from the sequelae resulting from exposure to more common yet stressful life experiences. The study also examines whether PTSD sequelae (criteria B-D) accurately describe the responses of victims even of extreme events fitting the DSM-III-R definition of stressor. The study included data from both St Louis victims exposed to floods and/or unsafe dioxin levels, and Puerto Rico victims of mudslides/flooding. Results showed that some of the common stressful events related more closely to PTSD symptoms than did the extraordinary events. Further, disaster exposure most strongly related to symptoms of reexperiencing (criterion B); symptoms relating to avoidance (criterion C) were particularly unreported. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for revision both of the PTSD criteria for DSM-IV, and of instruments designed to assess PTSD symptomatology.

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    Research supported in part by a supplement to the Epidemiological Catchment Area Program (ECA) Cooperative Agreement No. U01 MH 33883 awarded to Principal Investigators Lee N. Robins and John E. Helzer of Washington University in St Louis, MO, for research performed with National Institute of Mental Health Principal Collaborators Darrel A. Regier, Ben Z. Locke, and Jack D. Burke, Jr.; the NIMH Project Officer was William Huber. Also supported by a supplement to Grant No. R01 MH36230 awarded to G.J.C. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private ones of the authors, and are not to be considered as official or reflect the views of the NIMH or the Mental Health Secretariat (G.J.C.).

    Presented at the 5th Annual Meeting of the Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, San Francisco, CA, October, 1989.

    This is a US government work. There are no restrictions on its use.

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