Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following the Earthquake in Iran and Pakistan: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Author(s):  
Maryam Hosseinnejad ◽  
Vahid Yazdi-Feyzabadi ◽  
Ahmad Hajebi ◽  
Ali Bahramnejad ◽  
Reza Baneshi ◽  
...  

Abstract Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental disorder following traumatic events. The present study was conducted to understand the prevalence of PTSD after the earthquake in Iran and Pakistan. The review includes all articles published from inception to March 2019. The pooled prevalence for overall PTSD was 55.6% (95% CI: 49.9–61.3). It was 60.2% (95% CI: 54.1–66.3) and 49.2% (95% CI: 39.4–59) for Iranian and Pakistani survivors, respectively. Women experienced higher incidence of PTSD than men. The variation of PTSD based on the clinical interview was lower than the self-report approach. The interval time between the earthquakes and the assessment showed that the prevalence of PTSD decreased over time. The prevalence of PTSD in Iran and Pakistan was higher than the global average, and the rate of the disorder in Iran was higher than in Pakistan. Sex, method of assessment, and time lag between the occurrence of disaster and assessment of PTSD affect the prevalence.

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 595-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Amoroso ◽  
Michael Workman

Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a major area of research and development. The most widely accepted treatment for PTSD is prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, but for many patients it is intolerable or ineffective. ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) has recently re-emerged as a new treatment option, with two clinical trials having been published and both producing promising results. However, these results have yet to be compared to existing treatments. The present paper seeks to bridge this gap in the literature. Often the statistical significance of clinical trials is overemphasized, while the magnitude of the treatment effects is overlooked. The current meta-analysis aims to provide a comparison of the cumulative effect size of the MDMA-AP studies with those of PE. Effect sizes were calculated for primary and secondary outcome measures in the MDMA-AP clinical trials and compared to those of a meta-analysis including several PE clinical trials. It was found that MDMA-AP had larger effect sizes in both clinician-observed outcomes than PE did (Hedges’ g=1.17 vs. g=1.08, respectively) and patient self-report outcomes (Hedges’ g=0.87 vs. g=0.77, respectively). The dropout rates of PE and MDMA-AP were also compared, revealing that MDMA-AP had a considerably lower percentage of patients dropping out than PE did. These results suggest that MDMA-AP offers a promising treatment for PTSD.


10.18060/1874 ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Yarvis ◽  
Eunkyung Yoon ◽  
Margaret Ameuke ◽  
Sandra Simien-Turner ◽  
Grace Landers

The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist: Military Version (PCL-M) is a 17-item, self-report measure of PTSD symptomatology in military veterans and provides one total score and four subscale scores for older veterans’ PTSD (re-experiencing, avoiding, numbing, and hyperarousal symptoms). Study subjects are 456 male veterans over 55-years old with deployed experiences selected from a larger survey data by Veterans’ Affairs Canada (VAC). This study found that overall scale reliability was excellent with alpha of .93 and subscale alphas ranging from .81 to .90. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) confirmed the best fit of four first-order factor models. Criterion validity was confirmed through significant associations of the PCL-M scores with well-established measures of depression, substance abuse, and general health indices. The PCL-M is recommended as a reliable and valid tool for the clinical and empirical assessment of screening PTSD symptomatology, specifically related to older veterans military experiences.


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert Smid ◽  
Trudy Mooren ◽  
Roos Van der Mast ◽  
Berthold Gersens ◽  
Rolf Kleber

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. T. Taft ◽  
L. E. Watkins ◽  
J. Stafford ◽  
A. E. Street ◽  
C. M. Monson

Circulation ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 127 (suppl_12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Edmondson ◽  
Ian M Kronish ◽  
Jonathan A Shaffer ◽  
Louise Falzon ◽  
Matthew M Burg

Context: Recent evidence suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). Objective: To determine the association of PTSD to incident CHD using systematic review and meta-analysis. Data Sources: Articles were identified by searching Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, Cochrane Library, PILOTS database, and through manual search of reference lists. Study Selection: Prospective cohort studies that assessed PTSD in participants free of CHD and assessed subsequent CHD or cardiac-specific mortality. Data Extraction: We extracted estimates of the association of PTSD to incident CHD, as well as study characteristics. Odds ratios were converted to hazard ratios (HR), and a random-effects model was used to pool results. Data Synthesis: Five studies met our inclusion criteria (N= 401,712); 4 of these included depression as a covariate. The pooled HR for the magnitude of the relationship between PTSD and CHD was 1.53 (95% CI, 1.27-1.84) before adjustment for depression. The pooled HR estimate for the 4 depression-adjusted estimates (N= 362,388) was 1.22 (95% CI, 1.05-1.42). Conclusion: PTSD is independently associated with increased risk for incident CHD, even after adjusting for depression and other covariates. Figure 1. Forest plot of association of PTSD to incident MI or cardiac mortality Note: The area of each square is proportional to the study’s weight in the meta-analysis, and each line represents the confidence interval around the estimate. The diamond represents the aggregate estimate, and its lateral points indicate confidence intervals for this estimate.


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