Abstract
BackgroundPosttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most prevalent type of psychiatric disorder among children after an earthquake. This study investigated the role of trauma experiences, personality traits, and genotype in the maintenance of PTSD symptoms.MethodsIn a previous large-scale epidemiological investigation 1 year after the Wenchuan earthquake, 215 children with PTSD symptoms were selected at random with their blood samples collected. All of them were followed up, and their PTSD symptoms were assessed 3 years later. The adolescent version of the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index, the earthquake exposure scale, and the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire were used to determine PTSD symptoms, trauma experiences, and personality traits, respectively. We sequenced candidate genes involved in the regulation of long-term potentiation via NMDA-type receptors to identify the related SNP variations.ResultsBeing trapped for a longer period of time, feeling one’s own or a family member’s life to be in danger, losing a close family member or friend, extraversion, neuroticism, TrkB, G72 and CNTF were found to be associated with the maintenance of PTSD symptoms.ConclusionsExperiences, personality traits, and genotype influenced the maintenance of PTSD in child survivors who were considered to be followed up without medicine. This result could help to identify potential targets for treatment and promote the rational allocation of medical resources.
Highlights
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most prevalent type of psychiatric disorder among children after an earthquake
One group consisted of children who did not recover from PTSD 3 years after the earthquake, while the children in the other group did
Compared with the children who did not recover from PTSD symptoms, the recovered group tended to be younger (p < 0.05), have lower avoidance scores (p < 0.05) and have lower total UCLA-PTSD RI scores (p < 0.01)
Summary
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most prevalent type of psychiatric disorder among children after an earthquake. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most prevalent type of psychiatric disorder among earthquake survivors, and it can be defined. Several studies have revealed that PTSD symptoms tend to heal spontaneously over time [12, 13]. This process can be influenced by several factors that can only be assessed based on data about the long-term outcomes of PTSD without treatment. Extensive research listed age, gender, posttraumatic growth, and other traumas as significant influences on the recovery process of children [14,15,16], few writers have been able to draw on any systematic research into the impact of various factors on the maintenance of PTSD in children
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