Trajectories of depression symptoms from pre- to post- deployment: Does previous trauma predict symptom increase?

Abstract

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Psychological distress across the deployment cycle: exploratory growth mixture model

“…Third, combat-related events did not differentiate among the patterns of adaptation we identified. This replicates results reported in one of the depression studies cited above, 9 where the combat exposure construct was not a significant predictor of assignmentto-trajectory for depression. Critically, however, non-combat deployment stressors differentiated the low-stable trajectory from the remaining two trajectories.…”

“…First, these trajectories re-capitulate some of the findings reported in the two depression trajectory studies cited above. Specifically, our study replicates two of the three trajectories from a study of Danish personnel deployed to Afghanistan, 9 and three of the four patterns reported in a post-deployment study of National Guard personnel. 8 We recognise that differences between our study and these other studies may be because we used a combined depression-anxiety construct rather than focusing on depression alone.…”

“…The literature on differential response trajectories associated with military deployment is notable for its focus on post-traumatic stress. Less attention has been paid to depression and generalised anxiety, although two studies 8,9 examined depression from the vantage point of latent trajectory modelling. The present study was designed to expand this area of study by examining trajectories of psychological distress, constituted as consolidated responses for depression and generalised anxiety and using the PHQ-ADS to operationalise the construct.…”

“…The second study 9 used a prospective growth mixture modelling approach to examine trajectories of depression among Danish military personnel deployed to Afghanistan. The authors identified three trajectories of change: (a) a 'low-stable' trajectory with few depression symptoms; (b) a 'low-increasing' trajectory showing a significant rise in symptomatology over time, leading to severe depression at the last measurement occasion; and (c) a 'medium-fluctuating' trajectory with a pattern denoting symptomatology in the mid-range between low and severe depression.…”

Longitudinal associations between adolescents’ trajectory membership of depressive symptoms and suicidality in young adulthood: a 10-year cohort of Chinese Wenchuan earthquake survivors

“…According to previous findings in disaster-exposed samples (e.g. Schubert et al ., 2017; Lenferink et al ., 2018; Karstoft et al ., 2020), common trajectories of depressive symptoms include ‘resistance’ (no or minimal symptoms over time), ‘chronic’ (severe symptoms over time), ‘delayed dysfunction’ (initially minimal/no symptoms followed by elevated symptoms), ‘recovery’ (initially severe symptoms followed by a relief) and ‘relapsing/remitting’ (a cyclical pattern of symptoms). We hypothesised that the chronic, delayed or relapsing/remitting trajectories would predict increased likelihoods of suicidal ideation, plans and attempts than the resistance or recovery trajectories did.…”