Abstract Twenty‐five women remaining in a city devastated by an earthquake were compared with 24 relocated survivors and 25 comparison women. The women were administered a structured PTSD interview, the Hamilton Depression Scale, and SCL‐90‐R. The women in both exposed groups showed significantly more symptoms of avoidance, arousal, and total PTSD than the comparison group. The women in the relocated city had significantly higher depression scores than the women in the earthquake city. On the SCL‐90‐R, relocated women were most symptomatic and comparison group women were least symptomatic. Relocation after a disaster appears to be associated more with risk for depression than with PTSD in situations where recovery is delayed following the trauma.
To review the clinically relevant literature on the physical and emotional abuse and neglect of children and adolescents published during the past 10 years.Literature published between 1988 and 1998 was reviewed following a systematic search of Medline, Psychinfo, and the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect.During the last decade there has been substantial progress in understanding the symptomatology associated with maltreatment. However, prevention and intervention research studies are relatively rare and frequently have important methodological limitations.Child maltreatment research in the next decade needs to focus on understanding factors leading to resilient outcomes and on assessing the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatment strategies. Increased resources are needed to support child maltreatment research studies and investigators.
Data regarding the development of a structured interview measuring alterations that may accompany extreme stress are presented. A list of 27 criteria often seen in response to extreme trauma and not addressed by DSM-IV criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were generated based on a systematic review of the literature and a survey of 50 experts. A structured interview for disorders of extreme stress (SIDES) measuring the presence of these criteria was administered to 520 subjects as part of the DSM-IV PTSD field trials. Inter-rater reliability as measured by Kappa coefficients for lifetime Disorders of Extreme Stress was .81. Internal consistency using coefficient alpha ranged from .53 to .96. Results indicate that the SIDES is a useful tool for investigation of response to extremes stress.
Abstract Remarkably few reported studies tested the assumption that a research sample can be constructed which is representative of the population of interest. In order to investigate potential volunteer bias in abuse research, we utilized a database assembled for an NIMH funded study investigating the relationship among adolescent physical abuse, suicidal behavior, and psychopathology. Extensive information was available concerning the nonparticipant pool from which this sample was assembled, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of possible sample bias. The volunteer sample of 99 abused families who agreed to participate in our study was compared on a large number of variables with a random sample of 99 abused families who declined to participate. Comparisons of the two groups did not support the hypothesis that the non‐participating families represented a more dysfunctional population. The two groups were far more similar to, than disparate from, each other.
