Peritraumatic distress, a measure of the intensity of DSM-IV ... primary outcome measure was PTSD symptoms measured using the Clinician-Administered PTSD.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Peritraumatic distress predicts posttraumatic stress symptoms in older people Dear Editor,
In a recent publication of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Chung et al. (2009) found that 35% of older people were suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a fall. However, they found no predictive factors for the development of PTSD. We would like to report the preliminary results of a study carried out with the main objective of assessing the predictive power of peritraumatic reactions in older adults. Peritraumatic distress, a measure of the intensity of DSM-IV PTSD criteria A2, indexes ‘fear, helplessness, and horror’ as well as other reactions experienced during or immediately after trauma exposure while peritraumatic dissociation refers to alterations in the experience of time, place, and persons. Older adults were enrolled in the study from the emergency department (ED) of Toulouse and Bordeaux University Hospitals. The study was approved by the institutional ethical committee of the Toulouse University Hospital. Eligible adults (age >65 years, French speaking) were admitted to the ED after either a road traffic accident or a violent assault. Exclusion criteria comprised mental retardation, prior psychiatric disorder, Mini Mental State Examination score
