The goals of the proposed project are to examine in a population of women who are 1-month posttrauma: (1) the comorbidity of DSM-IV substance use disorders with dissociation as measured by the Stress Induced Analgesia (SIA) paradigm, and (2) to examine whether the comorbidity predicts posttraumatic stress symptoms at 1-month posttrauma and if it predicts posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 3-months posttrauma. The sample will consist of 52 women who were raped or physically assaulted as identified through police and victim assistance agencies. A prospective design will be used to assess these women at 1-month posttrauma on a battery of self report measures which will be comprised of: (1) Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS), (2) Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), (3) The National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center (NCVC) Brief Screening for Assault Questionnaire (NCVCBSAQ) to assess for prior trauma experiences, and (4) Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS)-Substance Use Disorders. In addition, a SIA paradigm, using cold pressor pain test, will be used to obtain a physiological index of dissociation. The index will be used as a gold standard against which subjects with current substance use disorder history and no current substance use disorder history will be stratified, and assessed for posttraumatic stress symptoms on the PDS. This study will use the same mechanism for recruiting subjects as an already funded study which is successfully in place. The pre-existing study is a study of biological alterations in crime related posttraumatic stress symptoms and is utilizing some of the same measures as the currently proposed project. Conducting the current project will have important implications in studying the comorbid interaction of substance use and dissociation as risk factors for PTSD.
| Nishith, Pallavi; Griffin, Michael G; Poth, Teri L (2002) Stress-induced analgesia: prediction of posttraumatic stress symptoms in battered versus nonbattered women. Biol Psychiatry 51:867-74 |
