Abstract
While much of the research on military posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) focuses on warzone reactions, a burgeoning literature highlights complex relationships between childhood adversity and adult-onset PTSD. However, conceptual efforts to delineate the effects of childhood abuse on treatment trajectories for traumatized military veterans are lacking. This study compared trauma and psychological symptom profiles for developmentally abused and non-abused Canadian Forces (CF) veterans (N = 108) diagnosed with operational PTSD. Subscale scores from the Detailed Assessment of PTSD Scale (DAPS) and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) were submitted to MANOVA. The analysis resulted in a composite variable reflecting’ symptom suppression efforts’ that separated abused veterans (n = 55) from non-abused veterans (n = 53). Post hoc analyses showed significant differences between the abused sub-groups (i.e., physical and sexual abuse [n = 15]; physical abuse only [n = 17]; sexual abuse only [n = 23]) and the non-abused group. Veterans with abuse histories had higher symptom suppression scores, reflecting higher levels of substance abuse, post-traumatic dissociation, interpersonal mistrust, as well as, lower depression and PTSD impairment scores. Implications for clinicians and an alternative intervention for treating traumatized military personnel with histories of developmental abuse are discussed.
Highlights
Numerous studies have linked military posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) onset and symptom severity with combat experiences
The main research question was whether the trauma and mental health measures differentiated traumatized veterans with developmental abuse histories from veterans who did not experience developmental abuse
Prior to conducting a oneway multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), a series of Pearson correlations was performed for all nonredundant subscales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and Detailed Assessment of PTSD Scale (DAPS) to test the MANOVA assumption that the dependent variables were moderately correlated (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2006)
Summary
Numerous studies have linked military PTSD onset and symptom severity with combat experiences. Treatment efforts typically focus on aspects of military deployments, despite evidence that up to 90 percent of military veterans report exposure to non-military trauma, including high rates of developmental abuse (Cabrera, Hoge, Bliese, Castro, & Messer, 2007; Felitti & Anda, 2010; Forbes et al, 2013; Kozaric-Kovacic, 2008; Schumacher, Coffey, & Stasiewicz, 2006). Prospective studies have reported direct links between developmental abuse and neglect, and subsequent military PTSD, independent of combat exposure (Mikulak, 2012; Solomon, Zur-Noah, Horesh, Zerach, & Keinan, 2008). Childhood trauma has been linked with increased severity of military PTSD symptoms (Seifert, Polusny, & Murdoch, 2011); these incremental effects appear to be more pronounced in cases of low combat exposure (Owens et al, 2009). While this research indicates direct relationships between adverse childhood events and subsequent military PTSD, much less is known about PTSD symptom presentation and treatment response among military personnel with histories of developmental adversity
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