Abstract
BackgroundThe aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence of psychological distress and posttraumatic stress symptoms in trauma patients who have been recruited from the resuscitation room. Further, we wanted to explore risk factors for posttraumatic stress symptoms, taking different accident types into account.MethodsOur sample consisted of 45 patients who have been treated in the resuscitation room and were interviewed within the first ten days after treatment. Type of accident, third party fault, previous mental health problems and pretraumatic stress were examined. Patients were interviewed with respect to their currently felt distress regarding the accident. Posttraumatic stress symptoms were measured with the German version of the Impact of Event Scale. Injury severity was assessed by means of the Injury Severity Score.ResultsOur exploratory and cross-sectional project reveals that more severe injuries were associated with higher distress. However, posttraumatic stress symptoms were predicted by high distress and being involved in a car accident, but not by injury severity.ConclusionsWe identified two potential risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress in trauma patients recruited from the resuscitation room: Being involved in a car accident and high distress.Trial registrationThe project has been registered at the Study Center of Mental Disorders (SPE) at the University Medical Center Mainz (No: 92072014).
Highlights
The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence of psychological distress and posttraumatic stress symptoms in trauma patients who have been recruited from the resuscitation room
Further systematic activities designed to bring about positive changes in the delivery of care and relief of trauma-related psychological stress were aimed as a quality improvement project
Descriptive data Possible influences of age and gender on severity of injury, posttraumatic stress symptoms, level of distress, third party fault, accident type and previous mental health problems were tested via t-tests, chi-square tests and Pearson correlations, revealing no significant association between age, gender and any of the variables
Summary
The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence of psychological distress and posttraumatic stress symptoms in trauma patients who have been recruited from the resuscitation room. Patients admitted to the resuscitation room are seriously impaired in their vital functions, have detectable injuries after trauma or have suffered a dangerous accident mechanism. Patients avoid (or try to avoid) trauma-associated circumstances, that they did not evade before the traumatic event. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress as well as PTSD may persist for years in a subset of trauma-exposed survivors. Chronic PTSD is associated with poor physical health, lower quality of life, impairments of social relationships and unemployment [7, 8]
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