Influence of social support and coping style on chronic post-traumatic stress disorder after floods

Abstract

To explore the long-term prognosis and influence of social support and coping style of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after suffering from floods. Patients suffered PTSD due to Dongting lake flood in 1998 were selected through cluster random sampling. PTSD scale civilian version (PCL-C) was used to examine and diagnose the participants in this study. PTSD was then evaluated by the social support rating scale (SSRS) and the simple coping style questionnaire (SCSQ). Among all the 120 subjects, 14(11.67%) of them were diagnosed as having PTSD. Compared with the rehabilitation group, scores on subjective support, objective support, total social support and positive coping, total of coping style from the non-rehabilitation group all appeared significant low (P<0.05). Data from the multivariate logistic regression showed that social support (OR=0.281, 95% CI: 0.117-0.678) and coping style (OR= 0.293, 95% CI: 0.128-0.672) were protective factors of the chronic PTSD after the floods while disaster experience (OR=1.626, 95%CI: 1.118-2.365) appeared as a risk factor. Chronic PTSD developed after the floods called for attention. Better social support, positive coping style could significantly improve the long-term prognosis of patients with PTSD after the floods.