Faculty Bibliography

The Multiple Stressor Debriefing (MSD) model was used to debrief 112 American Red Cross workers individually or in groups after their participation in the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake relief effort. Two composite case examples are presented that illustrate individual and group debriefings using the MSD model. A questionnaire which evaluated workers' experience of debriefing, was completed by 95 workers. Results indicated that workers evaluated the debriefings in which they participated positively. In addition, as participant to facilitator ratio increased, workers shared less of their feelings and reactions about the disaster relief operation. These findings, as well as more specific issues about debriefing, are discussed

OBJECTIVE: Although posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly prevalent and often chronic condition, the relationship between PTSD and functioning and quality of life remains incompletely understood. METHOD: The authors undertook an archival analysis of data from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. The study subjects consisted of the nationally representative sample of male Vietnam veterans who participated in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. The authors estimated PTSD at the time of the interview with the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. They examined the following outcomes: diminished well-being, physical limitations, bed day in the past 2 weeks, compromised physical health status, currently not working, and perpetration of violence. Logistic models were used to determine the association between PTSD and outcome; adjustment was made for demographic characteristics and comorbid psychiatric and other medical conditions. RESULTS: The risks of poorer outcome were significantly higher in subjects with PTSD than in subjects without PTSD in five of the six domains. For the outcome domains of physical limitations, not working, compromised physical health, and diminished well-being, these significantly higher risks persisted even in the most conservative logistic models that removed the shared effects of comorbid psychiatric and other medical disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The suffering associated with combat related-PTSD extends beyond the signs and symptoms of the disorder to broader areas of functional and social morbidity. The significantly higher risk of impaired functioning and diminished quality of life uniquely attributable to PTSD suggests that PTSD may well be the core problem in this group of difficult to treat and multiply afflicted patients

OBJECTIVE: This investigation assessed whether current post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was associated with impaired functioning in a nationally representative sample of female Vietnam veterans. METHODS: Logistic models were used to determine the association between PTSD and outcome while adjusting for demographic characteristics and medical and psychiatric co-morbidities. RESULTS: PTSD was associated with significantly elevated odds of poorer functioning in five of the six outcome domains; only the association between perpetration of violence in the past year and PTSD did not achieve statistical significance. After adjusting for demographics and medical and psychiatric co-morbidities, PTSD remained associated with significantly elevated odds of bed days, poorer physical health, and currently not working. CONCLUSIONS: Among female Vietnam veterans PTSD is associated with a broad profile of functional impairment. The significantly increased odds of impaired functioning and diminished quality of life suggest that PTSD may be the core problem of the set of problems afflicting female Vietnam veterans

This study examined the relationship of dissociation at the time of trauma, as assessed by the Peritraumatic Dissociation Experiences Questionnaire, Rater Version (PDEQ-RV; C.R. Marmar, D.S. Weiss, & T.J. Metzler, in press), and posttraumatic stress symptoms in a group of 77 female Vietnam theater veterans. PDEQ-RV ratings were found to be associated strongly with posttraumatic stress symptomatology, as measured by the Impact of Event Scale (M.J. Horowitz, N. Wilner, & W. Alvarez, 1979), and also positively associated with level of stress exposure and general dissociative tendencies, measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale. The PDEQ-RV was unassociated with general psychiatric symptomatology, as assessed by the clinical scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (J.N. Butcher, W.G. Dahlstrom, J.R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989). The PDEQ-RV was predictive of posttraumatic stress symptoms beyond the contributions of level of stress exposure and general dissociative tendencies. The findings provide further support for the reliability and validity of the PDEQ-RV as a measure of peritraumatic dissociation