Parent and child agreement for acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychopathology in a prospective study of children and adolescents exposed to single-event trauma

Examining parent-child agreement for Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents is essential for informing the assessment of trauma-exposed children, yet no studies have examined this relationship using appropriate statistical techniques. Parent-child agreement for these disorders was examined by structured interview in a prospective study of assault and motor vehicle accident (MVA) child survivors, assessed at 2-4 weeks and 6 months post-trauma. Children were significantly more likely to meet criteria for ASD, as well as other ASD and PTSD symptom clusters, based on their own report than on their parent's report. Parent-child agreement for ASD was poor (Cohen's κ = -.04), but fair for PTSD (Cohen's κ = .21). Agreement ranged widely for other emotional disorders (Cohen's κ = -.07-.64), with generalised anxiety disorder found to have superior parent-child agreement (when assessed by phi coefficients) relative to ASD and PTSD. The findings support the need to directly interview children and adolescents, particularly for the early screening of posttraumatic stress, and suggest that other anxiety disorders may have a clearer presentation post-trauma

Association between blood pressure measures and recurrent headache in adolescents: cross-sectional data from the HUNT-Youth study

The relationship between blood pressure and headache in youth has not been explored and the objective of the present study was to provide data on this association in an adolescent population. Cross-sectional data from a large population-based survey, the Young-HUNT study, on 5,847 adolescents were used to evaluate the association between blood pressure (systolic, diastolic, mean arterial and pulse pressure) and recurrent headache, including migraine and tension-type headache. Increasing pulse pressure was inversely related to recurrent headache prevalence, and both tension-type headache and migraine. For systolic blood pressure such an inverse relationship was present for recurrent headache and tension-type headache prevalence. For migraine, the results were not significant, although there was a tendency in the same direction (p = 0.05). High-pulse pressure has previously been found to be inversely related to the prevalence of migraine and tension-type headache in an adult population. This inverse relationship has now been demonstrated to be present among adolescents also, supporting the results from a previous study in adults, that blood pressure regulation may be linked to the pathophysiology of headache

Family structure and posttraumatic stress reactions: a longitudinal study using multilevel analyses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is limited research on the relevance of family structures to the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress following disasters. We longitudinally studied the effects of marital and parental statuses on posttraumatic stress reactions after the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami and whether persons in the same households had more shared stress reactions than others.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>The study included a tourist population of 641 Norwegian adult citizens, many of them from families with children. We measured posttraumatic stress symptoms with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised at 6 months and 2 years post-disaster. Analyses included multilevel methods with mixed effects models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results showed that neither marital nor parental status was significantly related to posttraumatic stress. At both assessments, adults living in the same household reported levels of posttraumatic stress that were more similar to one another than adults who were not living together. Between households, disaster experiences were closely related to the variance in posttraumatic stress symptom levels at both assessments. Within households, however, disaster experiences were less related to the variance in symptom level at 2 years than at 6 months.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results indicate that adult household members may influence one another's posttraumatic stress reactions as well as their interpretations of the disaster experiences over time. Our findings suggest that multilevel methods may provide important information about family processes after disasters.</p

Prevalence of headache in Europe: a review for the Eurolight project

The main aim of the present study was to do an update on studies on headache epidemiology as a preparation for the multinational European study on the prevalence and burden of headache and investigate the impact of different methodological issues on the results. The study was based on a previous study, and a systematic literature search was performed to identify the newest studies. More than 50% of adults indicate that they suffer from headache in general during the last year or less, but when asked specifically about tension-type headache, the prevalence was 60%. Migraine occurs in 15%, chronic headache in about 4% and possible medication overuse headache in 1–2%. Cluster headache has a lifetime prevalence of 0.2–0.3%. Most headaches are more prevalent in women, and somewhat less prevalent in children and youth. Some studies indicate that the headache prevalence is increasing during the last decades in Europe. As to methodological issues, lifetime prevalences are in general higher than 1-year prevalences, but the exact time frame of headache (1 year, 6 or 3 months, or no time frame stated) seems to be of less importance. Studies using personal interviews seem to give somewhat higher prevalences than those using questionnaires

The longitudinal association between symptoms of posttraumatic stress and complicated grief: A random intercepts cross-lag analysis

Objective: Knowledge about the temporal relationship between disturbed grief and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have important implications for clinicians working with bereaved trauma survivors. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between symptoms of complicated grief and PTSD in a bereaved trauma-exposed sample. Method: In total, 275 bereaved survivors (M age = 19.3, SD = 4.6 years; 47.3% females) of the 2011 massacre on Utøya Island, Norway, participated in semistructured interviews 4–5 months (Time 1 [T1]), 14–15 months (Time 2 [T2]), and 30–32 months (Time 3 [T3]) posttrauma. Complicated grief was measured using the Brief Grief Questionnaire, and posttraumatic stress reactions using the University of California at Los Angeles PTSD Reaction Index. To explore associations between symptoms of complicated grief and PTSD over time, we used a random intercepts cross-lagged panel model. Results: The participants had lost a close friend (n = 256) and/or a family member/partner (n = 19) in the attack. We found a strong correlation between stable individual differences in symptoms of complicated grief and PTSD across the three time-points. PTSD symptoms at T2 predicted complicated grief reactions at T3, but not vice versa. Conclusion: Findings suggest that targeting PTSD symptoms among trauma-exposed bereaved may hinder later development of complicated grief

PTSD or not PTSD? Comparing the proposed ICD-11 and the DSM-5 PTSD criteria among young survivors of the 2011 Norway attacks and their parents

BACKGROUND The conceptualization of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the upcoming International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11 differs in many respects from the diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). The consequences of these differences for individuals and for estimation of prevalence rates are largely unknown. This study investigated the concordance of the two diagnostic systems in two separate samples at two separate waves. METHOD Young survivors of the 2011 Norway attacks (n = 325) and their parents (n = 451) were interviewed at 4-6 months (wave 1) and 15-18 months (wave 2) after the shooting. PTSD was assessed with the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index for DSM-IV adapted for DSM-5, and a subset was used as diagnostic criteria for ICD-11. RESULTS In survivors, PTSD prevalence did not differ significantly at any time point, but in parents, the DSM-5 algorithm produced significantly higher prevalence rates than the ICD-11 criteria. The overlap was fair for survivors, but amongst parents a large proportion of individuals met the criteria for only one of the diagnostic systems. No systematic differences were found between ICD-11 and DSM-5 in predictive validity. CONCLUSIONS The proposed ICD-11 criteria and the DSM-5 criteria performed equally well when identifying individuals in distress. Nevertheless, the overlap between those meeting the PTSD diagnosis for both ICD-11 and DSM-5 was disturbingly low, with the ICD-11 criteria identifying fewer people than the DSM-5. This represents a major challenge in identifying individuals suffering from PTSD worldwide, possibly resulting in overtreatment or unmet needs for trauma-specific treatment, depending on the area of the world in which patients are being diagnosed

The longitudinal association between symptoms of posttraumatic stress and complicated grief: A random intercepts cross-lag analysis

Objective: Knowledge about the temporal relationship between disturbed grief and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have important implications for clinicians working with bereaved trauma survivors. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between symptoms of complicated grief and PTSD in a bereaved trauma-exposed sample. Method: In total, 275 bereaved survivors (M age = 19.3, SD = 4.6 years; 47.3% females) of the 2011 massacre on Utøya Island, Norway, participated in semistructured interviews 4–5 months (Time 1 [T1]), 14–15 months (Time 2 [T2]), and 30–32 months (Time 3 [T3]) posttrauma. Complicated grief was measured using the Brief Grief Questionnaire, and posttraumatic stress reactions using the University of California at Los Angeles PTSD Reaction Index. To explore associations between symptoms of complicated grief and PTSD over time, we used a random intercepts cross-lagged panel model. Results: The participants had lost a close friend (n = 256) and/or a family member/partner (n = 19) in the attack. We found a strong correlation between stable individual differences in symptoms of complicated grief and PTSD across the three time-points. PTSD symptoms at T2 predicted complicated grief reactions at T3, but not vice versa. Conclusion: Findings suggest that targeting PTSD symptoms among trauma-exposed bereaved may hinder later development of complicated grief