Background: PTSD is posited to develop in the acute posttrauma period. Few studies have examined psychopathology symptoms within this period due to the demands on individuals in the first month after a trauma. Mobile devices can overcome these barriers. The feasibility of using mobile devices for this purpose, however, is unclear.
Objective: The present study evaluated the acceptability of administering PTSD symptom assessments via a mobile application throughout the acute posttrauma period.
Method: Participants (N = 90) were recruited from a Level 1 Trauma Center within M = 4.88 days of experiencing a traumatic event. A mobile application was placed on their smartphone that administered a daily self-report assessment of PTSD symptoms for 30 days. Participants were compensated US$1 for each assessment completed.
Results: The overall response rate was 61.1% or M = 18.33, SD = 9.12 assessments. Assessments were accessed M = 65.2 minutes after participants were notified to complete them and took M = 2.52 minutes to complete. Participants reported that the daily assessments were not bothersome and were moderately helpful.
Conclusion: The present study suggests that using mobile devices to monitor mental health symptoms during the acute posttrauma period is feasible and acceptable. Strategies are needed to determine how to best take advantage of these data once collected.
Childhood maltreatment increases the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and comorbid substance use disorder (SUD). One pathway by which this occurs is through impaired emotion regulation. Past research has shown that negative urgency, a deficit in the regulation of negative emotions, is strongly related to PTSD in those with comorbid SUD. However, there is minimal research on the relation between positive urgency and PTSD in those with comorbid SUD. The current study investigated the association between childhood maltreatment, positive urgency, negative urgency, and PTSD symptoms among those with SUD. Results suggested that PTSD was associated with negative urgency and positive urgency overall. Childhood maltreatment did not moderate the association between negative urgency and PTSD. Childhood emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse moderated the relation between positive urgency and PTSD (ΔR2 = .04 to .10). The association between PTSD and positive urgency was only significant at lower levels of emotional abuse and neglect. Future research should further examine the processing of positive emotions in those with PTSD and comorbid SUD. Findings might inform clinical interventions among populations exposed to childhood maltreatment to reduce or prevent the development of psychopathology.
Objective: Exposure to a traumatic event is common among US adults, yet only a small fraction develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Higher pain after a traumatic injury has been associated with higher PTSD symptomology and thus may be a risk factor. However, few studies have examined how pain during the period immediately after a trauma, referred to as the acute post trauma period, relates to later to PTSD outcomes.Methods: A sample of (n = 87) individuals who had experienced a traumatic injury assessed their pain through daily mobile assessments for the first month after injury. PTSD, depression, and functional impairment were assessed at time of trauma and 1, and 3 months later.Results: Using latent class growth analysis (LCGA), three trajectories of pain were identified: low pain (41.3%), decreasing pain (43.7%), and high pain (14.9%). At baseline, the high pain class reported higher levels of depression and functional impairment than the low pain group. From baseline to 3 months, the low pain class experienced a reduction in PTSD, depression, and functional impairment whereas the high pain class experienced an increase in PTSD symptoms, and persistent depression, and functional impairment.
Conclusions:These results demonstrate that there are distinct trajectories of pain after a traumatic injury. Persistent elevated pain is associated with more severe psychopathology in the period immediately following a traumatic injury.
Keywords pain; traumatic injury; post-traumatic stress disorder; trajectoriesThe overwhelming majority of adults (89.7%) in the US will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime (1). A significant portion (8.3%) will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (1). PTSD is associated with several negative outcomes-including an inability to work, impaired social relationships, dependence on others, and the onset of comorbid conditions (2). Thus, preventing PTSD is of great public health importance. An important first step in understanding how to prevent PTSD is to identify the factors that contribute to its development. One such factor that is posited to be highly relevant is pain (3,4).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.