Risk factors

The following groups of people are at an increased risk of developing PTSD:

• victims of violent crime e.g. physical and sexual assaults/abuse, bombings, riots
• people engaged in the armed forces, police, journalists and prison service, fire service, ambulance and emergency personnel, including those no longer in service
• victims of war, torture, state-sanctioned violence or terrorism, and refugees
• survivors of accidents and disasters
• women following traumatic childbirth,
• individuals diagnosed with a life-threatening illness (1)

Factors associated with post-traumatic stress disorder include:

• pretraumatic factors
  • previous psychiatric disorder
  • sex (more prevalent in female patients than in male patients)
  • personality (external locus of control greater than internal locus of control)
  • lower socioeconomic status
  • lack of education
  • race (minority status)
  • previous trauma
  • family history of psychiatric disorders
• peritraumatic factors
  • severity of trauma
  • perceived threat to life
  • peritraumatic emotions
  • peritraumatic dissociation
• post-traumatic factors
  • absence of social support
  • subsequent life stress (2)

Factors occurring during or after the trauma are associated with stronger effects than pretraumatic factors (3).

Reference:

• (1) National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) 2005. Post – traumatic stress disorder. The management of PTSD in adults and in children in primary and secondary care
• (2) Bisson JI. Post-traumatic stress disorder. BMJ. 2007;334(7597):789-93
• (3) Brewin CR, Andrews B, Valentine JD. Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2000;68(5):748-66