Trauma and PTSD Among Adolescents With Severe Emotional Disorders Involved in Multiple Service Systems

Abstract

PTSD is a common but underdiagnosed disorder among adolescents with severe emotional and behavioral disorders who are involved in multiple service systems. Routine screening for trauma exposure and PTSD should be conducted with all adolescents receiving mental health services so that treatment can be provided to those with PTSD.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder: A review and meta-analysis

“…Pediatric patients with PTSD present with a multitude of symptoms affecting functioning across different domains. Mueser and Taub (2008) reported a rate of PTSD as high as 20% among youth with severe emotional disorders who were involved in multiple systems of care. The authors also reported that adolescents with PTSD were more likely to engage in a variety of high-risk behaviors including running away from home, self-injury, and delinquency.…”

Epidemiology of child traumatic stress

“…A portion of the variance may be attributable to concerns that current PTSD criteria are insuffi ciently developmentally informed, leading to elevated false-negative rates among children and youth. However, in contrast to general population studies, high rates of PTSD, depression, and developmental and functional impairments were reported consistently in studies of maltreated children, children who experienced traumatic loss and bereavement associated with natural disasters [33,51], and children in other high-risk groups (eg, youth in residential treatment and juvenile detention) [41,42].…”

“…Most adolescents with SED experienced domestic violence (51%) and the death of a loved one (51%) [41]. Nearly 50% of this sample had a history of physical abuse, and almost 33% were sexually abused.…”

Group Care Worker Behavior and Adolescents' Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Compulsory Residential Care

“…In this study the possibility of traumatic events or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) underlying the adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems, was not considered. There are indications that PTSD is often underdiagnosed (e.g., Mueser & Taub, 2008). It could be the case that group care workers act differently on adolescents who experienced severe trauma, which might explain the lack of a relationship between group care worker behavior and treatment outcome.…”