BackgroundStudies of specific groups such as military veterans have found that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is linked to adverse health outcomes including unhealthy weight. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between PTSD symptoms, experiences of childhood trauma and weight in a community sample.MethodsA stratified random probability survey was conducted in Denmark by the Danish National Centre for Social Research between 2008 and 2009 with 2,981 participants born in 1984, achieving a response rate of 67%. The participants were interviewed with a structured interview with questions pertaining PTSD symptomatology, exposure to childhood abuse, exposure to potentially traumatizing events, height, and weight. Underweight was defined by a body mass index (BMI) <18.5, overweight was defined by a BMI ≥25 and <30 and obesity was defined by a BMI ≥30.ResultsPTSD symptomatology and childhood abuse were significantly associated with both underweight and overweight/obesity. Childhood emotional abuse was especially associated with underweight, whereas sexual abuse and overall abuse were particularly associated with overweight/obesity.ConclusionThese findings indicate that health care professionals may benefit from assessing PTSD and childhood abuse in the treatment of both overweight and underweight individuals.

The results underline the complexity of the interplay between multiple victimization experiences, traumatization, and suicide attempts.

Background: Indian adolescents are presumably exposed to a range of potentially traumatizing and negative life events. However, the knowledge on this area is relatively sparse. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatizing and negative life events and the occurrence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among a specific sample of Indian adolescents. Method: A sample of 411 Indian 9th graders (M = 14.15 years), from two private schools in Pune City answered a questionnaire about 1) socio-demographical background and 2) the direct or indirect exposure to 20 specific, potentially traumatizing and negative life events. Also, they filled out Part IV of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ-IV) to assess their level of PTSD-symptoms. Results: 70% of the females and 85% of the males had been exposed to or witnessed at least one traumatizing or negative life event. The mean number of experienced events was 2.5. The most common events were: death of someone close, traffic accidents, serious illness, witnessing the injury or killing of others, and coming close to being injured or killed. The prevalence of PTSD was 10%. Males reported higher direct as well as indirect exposure than females to all events, while no significant gender difference was found in the prevalence of PTSD. Living in a single-parent household meant increased risk of developing PTSD. Conclusion: Exposure to potentially traumatizing events was comparable to that seen in similar studies in Western European youth samples. Prevalence of PTSD was also in the same range. This may be attributable to a number of protective factors associated with the specific sample. Males were exposed to more potentially traumatizing events than females, but contradictory to most other studies, no gender difference in prevalence of PTSD was seen. These differences in comparison to earlier studies might reflect cultural and national circumstances that distinguish this Indian sample from Western European countries previously investigated.

Within the last ten years, there has been a growing number of epidemiological studies, examining the effect of trauma exposure in children and adolescents. Although studies concerning Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have been conducted in a wide array of different cultural contexts [1], the knowledge on traumatization and development of PTSD is still limited [2]. Most studies conducted are clinical studies, which deal with subjects that have already been traumatized or affected by specific single events such as war [3], natural disasters [1], serious accidents [4] or physical/sexual abuse [5-7]. Though research indicates that adolescents are very vulnerable to the exposure of Potentially Traumatic Events (PTEs) [8], studies targeting non-clinical youth populations and the impact of their life experiences are very few. With the increasing ethnic diversity of populations worldwide, it is of particular interest to compare the prevalence of exposure and PTSD in children and adolescents of different ethnic backgrounds. When designing preventive interventions and treatment programs for youth suffering from PTSD it is crucial to understand the complex interaction of variables behind the disorder. Differences in prevalence of exposure, PTSD and demographic variables between ethnicities may reveal some important clues to the etiology of the disease.The present study replicated six previous non-clinical studies which were designed to provide epidemiological information about exposure to PTEs, and the prevalence of PTSD among adolescents (see Table 1). The six studies were conducted in different countries and were very similar in their research methods and samples. The studies have been conducted in four European countries: Denmark [9], Iceland, [10], Lithuania [11], and the Faroe Islands [2], as well as in two Asian countries: Israel [12], and India [13] of which the four first samples were nationally representative.

Background: A high prevalence of adolescent dating violence (ADV) has been documented in recent years. However, the majority of ADV studies have been conducted in North America and moreover, ADV studies have primarily focused on high school or college populations. Objective: To investigate victimization and perpetration of ADV and related gender differences in a sample of Danish seventh-grade students. Method: In total, 2934 seventh-grade students (M = 3.5, SD = 0.5) filled out questionnaires at school. Results: The prevalence of victimization of emotional, physical and sexual ADV was 32.2%, 11.2% and 10.6%, and the prevalence of perpetration of emotional, physical and sexual ADV was 20.6%, 6% and 2.1%. One out of five students reported both victimization and perpetration of one of the three ADV types and 14.3% and 6% reported multiple forms of ADV victimization and perpetration respectively. Moreover, gender differences in the prevalence of ADV and the co-occurrence of ADV victimization and perpetration were identified. Conclusion: The present study highlights that a large proportion of Danish seventh-grade students are experiencing ADV, and that ADV preventive programs are relevant already in early adolescence. Based on the high proportion of students reporting co-occurrence of victimization and perpetration experiences, comprehensive preventive programs that focus on both victimization and perpetration experiences and the transmission of violence are recommended.