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7 in 10 kids exposed to trauma
10/05/2007 07:30 - (SA)
New York - While exposure to traumatic
events among children and teens is "almost commonplace", only a
small fraction of young people will go on to develop
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after such exposure, a
new study shows.
But the findings shouldn't be interpreted to mean that kids
don't suffer after a trauma, Dr William E Copeland of Duke
University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina, the
study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
While children
exposed to a single traumatic event did seem to fare well,
those exposed to two or more such events were at higher risk of
developing post-traumatic stress symptoms, as well as
psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety.
"Resiliency may be a question of degree," the researcher
said. "Once you take a certain number of punches, all of us are going to go down."
Little is known about children's risk for developing PTSD,
Copeland and his colleagues point out in the May issue of
Archives of General Psychiatry. Studies of kids and PTSD have
usually looked at the aftermath of a specific type of event,
for example a car crash. To better understand risk after
exposure to a range of possible events, the researchers
followed 1 420 children for several years.
Focus on higher-risk children
Study participants
were nine, 11 or 13 years old when the study began, and were
interviewed annually up until age 16.
Nearly seven out of 10 reported exposure to some type of
traumatic event, such as having a loved one die violently,
being sexually abused or being diagnosed with a serious
illness. Nearly 31% experienced one such event, while 37% were
exposed to two or more.
Overall, the researchers found, less than 0.5% of children
in the study met full diagnostic criteria for PTSD. But 13.4%
of the children exposed to one or more traumas did develop at
least one symptom of traumatic stress, such as intrusive
thoughts of the traumatic event or nightmares.
Those who were
exposed to sexual or violent events tended to have more of
these symptoms. And children who had experienced trauma in the
past, those with anxiety disorders, and those from poor or less
educated families were more likely to develop symptoms.
Based on the results, Copeland noted, it's possible to
predict which children will go on to develop post-traumatic
stress symptoms and psychiatric problems after trauma.
This suggests that "rather than trying to get every kid that has
something bad happen to them into therapy", he said, parents
and mental health professionals should focus their attentions
on higher-risk children.
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