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Posttraumatic Stress Related to Hyperglycemia: Prevalence in Adults with Type I Diabetes

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Abstract

Prevalence of hyperglycemia-related posttraumatic stress (PTS) was assessed in 239 adults with type 1 diabetes using the posttraumatic stress diagnostic scale (PDS; Foa, Posttraumatic stress diagnostic scale manual, National Computer Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, 1995) by an anonymous online survey. Additionally, this study aimed to identify variables related to hyperglycemia-related PTS. Over 30 % of participants reported symptoms consistent with PTSD related to hyperglycemia with standard PDS scoring, and 10 % with more conservative scoring. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that diabetes self-management behavior and perceived helplessness about hyperglycemia predicted PTSD with standard scoring. Perceived death threat, self-management behavior, helplessness about hyperglycemia, and severity of hypoglycemia in past month predicted PTSD using more conservative scoring. Perceived helplessness, hypoglycemia severity, perceived death-threat, HbA1c, and self-management behavior predicted PTS severity. When fear, helplessness, and perceived death-threat were combined to represent an overall cognitive appraisal factor, this variable was the strongest predictor of PTSD and PTS severity. Scores for PTSD symptom clusters appeared similar to data on hypoglycemia-related PTS.

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Acknowledgments

Authors wish to thank the participants who provided this information about their experience. Some of this data was previously presented at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, New Orleans, LA in 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology, Widener University, Chester, PA, USA

    Chelsea P. Renna, Bret A. Boyer & Maurice F. Prout

  2. The Family Health Psychology Center, 506 West Mt Airy Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19119, USA

    Bret A. Boyer

  3. Integrated Diabetes Services, Wynnewood, PA, USA

    Gary Scheiner

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  1. Chelsea P. Renna
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Correspondence to Bret A. Boyer.

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Conflict of Interest

Chelsea P. Renna, Bret A. Boyer, Maurice F. Prout, and Gary Scheiner declare they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Renna, C.P., Boyer, B.A., Prout, M.F. et al. Posttraumatic Stress Related to Hyperglycemia: Prevalence in Adults with Type I Diabetes. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 23, 269–284 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-016-9463-x

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