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Emergency room vital signs and PTSD in a treatment seeking sample of motor vehicle accident survivors
Author(s) -
Blanchard Edward B.,
Hickling Edward J.,
Galovski Tara,
Veazey Connie
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1023/a:1015299126858
Subject(s) - posttraumatic stress , vehicle accident , psychology , psychiatry , anxiety disorder , injury prevention , emergency department , clinical psychology , acute stress disorder , occupational safety and health , poison control , medicine , medical emergency , anxiety , surgery , pathology
Seeking to replicate earlier reports by Shalev et al. (1998) and R. A. Bryant. A. G. Harvey. R. M. Guthrie, and M. L. Moulds (2000) that elevated heart rate (HR) shortly after a trauma was predictive of later posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we examined vital sign data on 74 treatment‐seeking motor vehicle accident (MVA) survivors, taken in the Emergency Department (ED) following their MVAs. Contrary to expectations, we found that those with elevated HRs in the ED were significantly less likely to meet criteria for PTSD 13 months post‐MVA and that those with elevated HRs had lower levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Likewise, those with current PTSD had lower ED values of HR and DBP than did those who did not currently meet criteria for PTSD.