Longitudinal analysis of the relationship between symptoms and quality of life in veterans treated for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Abstract

This study examined how change in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms relates to change in quality of life. The sample consisted of 325 male Vietnam veterans with chronic PTSD who participated in a randomized trial of group psychotherapy. Latent growth modeling was used to test for synchronous effects of PTSD symptom change on psychosocial and physical health-related quality of life within the same time period and lagged effects of initial PTSD symptom change on later change in quality of life. PTSD symptoms were associated with reduced quality of life before treatment. There were synchronous effects of symptom change on change in quality of life but no significant lagged effects. Results indicate the importance of measuring quality of life in future investigations of PTSD treatment.

DSM-5 posttraumatic stress symptom dimensions and health-related quality of life among Chinese earthquake survivors

“…In previous studies, psychosocial HRQoL was measured by role-emotional, social functioning, mental health, and fatigue subscales of SF-36. However, as suggested previously (Schnurr et al, 2006), there are spurious relationships between PCL and the mental health and fatigue subscales of the SF-36. Some items of the two subscales are very similar to PCL items.…”

“…Our results also provide suggestions for clinical practice. According to clinical investigations, treatment for PTSD will lead to improvements in HRQoL (Aversa et al, 2013; Schnurr et al, 2006). Our results suggest that interventions targeting dysphoric arousal symptoms should be developed to improve quality of life among PTSD patients.…”

“…The Chinese version of SF-36 has been widely used in Chinese samples (Li, Wang, & Shen, 2003). The mental health and fatigue subscales of the SF-36 demonstrate spurious relationships with the PCL (Schnurr et al, 2006). Therefore, we used only role-emotional and social functioning subscales as indicators of psychosocial HRQoL; higher scores indicate better functioning.…”

“…Another study found an association with emotional numbing symptoms (Taylor, Wald, & Asmundson, 2006). A longitudinal study found PTSD symptoms were more strongly correlated with psychosocial than physical HRQoL (Schnurr, Hayes, Lunney, McFall, & Uddo, 2006). Additional work on HRQoL also supports unique effects of different PTSD dimensions (Maguen, Stalnaker, McCaslin, & Litz, 2009): only PTSD dysphoric arousal factor was related to physical HRQoL, and only PTSD avoidance and emotional numbing factors were related to psychosocial HRQoL (Wang et al, 2012).…”

Assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder-related functional impairment: A review

“…Specifically, PTSD is associated with impairments in occupational and academic functioning [2][3][4][5][6], marital and family functioning [5,[7][8], parenting [9][10], and friendships and socializing [11]. Additional studies have shown associations between PTSD and objective indicators of quality of life (QOL) such as homelessness and unemployment [12][13]. Such impairments are common among populations at high risk for PTSD, such as military personnel deployed to combat [3,[5][6][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”