Long-Term Trajectories of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Categorical versus Continuous Assessment

Psychiatry
Z SolomonK Ginzburg

Abstract

Long-term trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may fluctuate over time and typically conform to four heterogeneous patterns: resilience, recovery, delayed-onset, and chronic symptomatology. However, such fluctuations are typically short ranged and have rarely been investigated over the course of decades after the trauma. Moreover, existing studies have used a variety of measurements, either employing a categorical Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-oriented approach or a continuous measure of symptom severity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the two methods of analyzing trajectories of PTSD by examining the level of concordance between them, their sensitivity, and their validity. A total of 349 Israeli veterans from the 1973 Yom Kippur War were examined at four time points over more than four decades since the war. A latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was conducted to identify different PTSD trajectories, using both categorical and continuous PTSD assessments. Descriptive results revealed that the four commonly observed patterns of PTSD are insufficient for capturing the range of individual PTSD trajectories. Using a categorical measure in the explorative LCGA yielded three trajec...Continue Reading

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Software Mentioned

SPSS
LCGA
Mplus

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