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Post‐traumatic stress disorder in a Danish population of elderly bereaved
Author(s) -
ELKLIT ASK,
O'CONNOR MAJA
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2005.00475.x
Subject(s) - spouse , psychology , learned helplessness , danish , checklist , clinical psychology , psychiatry , traumatic stress , population , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , environmental health , sociology , anthropology , cognitive psychology
The objectives of this study were to examine psychological sequalae of loss of a spouse in late life especially the occurrence of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and possible predictors of PTSD and symptom development. Fifty‐four bereaved Danes (mean age 75 years) from five geographically different areas were studied by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC), and the Crisis Support Scale (CSS). One month after the loss, 27% of the subjects had PTSD. Six months after the loss, this number decreased to 17%; if the A2 criterion was dismissed, the number increased to 24%. Lack of expressive ability, numbing, fear of death or illness, and helplessness in relation to the loss predicted 73% of the variance of the HTQ‐total scores. The study concluded that for a considerable number of elderly, losing a spouse in late life appeared to be a traumatic experience. Pre‐ and peritraumatic factors together with numbing were important predictors of traumatization. Research implications are discussed.