Six years after the wave. Trajectories of posttraumatic stress following a natural disaster

Background The characteristics of long-term trajectories of distress after disasters are unclear, since few studies include a comparison group. This study examines trajectories of recovery among survivors in comparison to individuals with indirect exposure. Methods Postal surveys were sent to Swedish tourists, repatriated from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (n = 2268), at 1, 3, and 6 years after the tsunami to assess posttraumatic stress (PTS) and poor mental health. Items were used to ascertain high and moderate disaster exposure groups and an indirect exposure comparison group. Results Long-term PTS trajectories were best characterized by a resilient (72.3%), a severe chronic (4.6%), a moderate chronic (11.2%) and a recovering (11.9%) trajectory. Trajectories reported higher levels of PTS than the comparison group. Exposure severity and bereavement were highly influential risk factors. Conclusions These findings have implications regarding anticipation of long-term psychological adjustment after natural disasters and need for interventions after a single traumatic event with few secondary stressors

Validation of the Kurdish version of the Harvard-Uppsala Trauma Questionnaire for Children (HUTQ-C)

Harvard-Uppsala Trauma Questionnaire for Children (HUTQ-C) is an instrument developed from the adult version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) by adding 13 child specific items. The HUTQ-C is used to identify traumatic events among children. However, no psychometric evaluation of the Kurdish translation of the HUTQ-C has been published. The aim of this article was to study the psychometric characteristics of the Kurdish version of the HUTQC. Data on HUTQ-C were collected for 100 street working children and 100 school children in Duhok. The internal consistency of the HUTQ-C was examined with Cronbach's alpha. The convergent validity of the HUTQ-C was examined by comparison with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The internal consistency for the total 30 items HUTQ-C of the three domains, experienced, witnessed and heard, showed good internal consistency; Cronbach’s alpha was 0.83. The HUTQ-C showed higher internal consistency than both the original 17 items from HTQ and the added 13 child specific items, when these were examined separately. There was significant difference in HUTQ-C scores for those with normal range compared to those with clinical range on the anxious/depressed scale of Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) (KruskalWallis Test=6.22, p&lt;0.05) supporting convergent validity. The Kurdish HUTQ-C shows promising reliability and validity. </p

Alcohol Habits and Health Care Use in Patients with Psychiatric Disorders

OBJECTIVE: It is common for persons with psychiatric disorders to also have alcohol problems. Studies in the general population as well as in clinical samples have found hazardous or harmful alcohol habits to be particularly prevalent in the presence of psychiatric disorders. This study sought to explore the relationships between drinking habits and health care utilization (psychiatric as well as general medical) in persons seeking psychiatric treatment and to investigate the associations among age, sex, and type or number of diagnoses and health care use and costs. For the planning of targeted interventions, we also sought to identify subgroups with a high prevalence of hazardous drinking habits.METHODS: From a psychiatric clinic for affective disorders at a university hospital in Sweden, patients who had been screened for hazardous drinking (N = 609) were selected. Patients with primary psychosis or substance use disorder receive treatment at other clinics and did not participate. Medical records data were grouped and compared. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10) was used for diagnoses and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test for screening. Patients were grouped by drinking habits and sex, age, and diagnosis group, and their psychiatric as well as general medical health care use was compared.RESULTS: Abstainers used psychiatric care more than all other drinking groups (p &lt; .001). Psychiatric health care costs were higher in abstainers and low-risk drinkers (1.64 to 1). No differences in general medical care could be identified between drinking groups. Specific subgroups with higher rates of hazardous drinking could not be identified (44% of all males and 34% of all females reported such habits). Inconclusive results from previous research are most likely due to different methods used to classify drinking problems.CONCLUSIONS: Abstainers and low-risk drinkers used psychiatric health care to a higher cost than the other drinking groups. Possible explanations are discussed from a clinical and scientific perspective. This study clarifies the need for uniform measures when classifying alcohol use in studies of relationships between alcohol use and health care use. There is also a need to separate former drinkers from abstainers in future studies.</p

The role of personality traits in trajectories of long-term posttraumatic stress and general distress six years after the tsunami in Southeast Asia

The aims were to examine whether trajectories of posttraumatic stress (PTS) and general distress are related to personality traits and to investigate personality's contributing factor to PTS and general distress. The sample was 2549 Swedish tourists who survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and responded to postal surveys at 1, 3 and 6 years after the tsunami, including assessment of personality traits, PTS and general distress. The sample was categorized into a direct exposure group and an indirect exposure comparison group. For both PTS and general distress, individuals with a resilient trajectory were lower in the trait neuroticism than those in the symptomatic trajectories whereas there were no differences in personality traits between the resilient trajectory and the low exposure comparison group. Neuroticism was strongly related to trajectories of both PTS and general distress even when adjusting for important risk factors such as traumatic bereavement and exposure severity. Other personality traits demonstrated weak associations with the trajectories. The present findings correspond with the notion of neuroticism as a vulnerability factor for symptomatic long-term trajectories of posttraumatic and general distress whereas resiliency was not predicated by particularly low levels of neuroticism.</p

Mental disorders in former street-working boys

The continuity of mental disorders in street-working children is rarely studied. This study therefore investigated homotypic and heterotypic continuity of mental disorders from childhood to adulthood in street-working boys. Mental disorders were assessed by structured diagnostic interviews in 40 street-working boys in 2004-2005 and again in 2021, when the participants’ mean ages were 12.1 (SD 1.8) and 29.7 (SD 2.3), respectively. Mental disorders were common; 24 participants (60%) satisfied the criteria for at least one diagnosis at baseline and 28 (70%) at follow-up. Comorbidity increased from 1.2 (SD 1.4) disorders initially to 2.5 (SD 1.8) at follow-up.  Only anxiety disorders showed homotypic continuity. Depressive disorders exhibited the greatest increase over time whereas externalizing disorders exhibited a decreasing tendency. The number of mental disorders in adulthood was related to the number of mental disorders in childhood but not to the number of childhood traumas experienced, having previously worked for more than two hours per day, having worked for over two years on the streets, or having at least one dead parent as a child. Parental ratings on the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) from childhood were also unrelated to the number of adult disorders. More longitudinal studies with bigger samples of both genders are needed to fully evaluate the continuity of mental disorders in street-working children and to determine whether the number of mental disorders in childhood is a stronger predictor of being mentally disordered in adult life than psychosocial risk factors or experiences of internalizing or externalizing symptoms in childhood.

Association of Media Coverage on Transgender Health With Referrals to Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinics in Sweden

IMPORTANCE Increasing numbers of transgender and gender diverse children and adolescents have been referred to gender identity clinics in Sweden in the past decade, and previous studies have found an association between media attention and referral counts. Whether the tone of media stories is associated with referrals is not yet known. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether positive or negative media coverage on transgender and gender diverse issues is associated with referral counts to child and adolescent gender identity clinics. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In this cross-sectional study, referrals counts were collected from all 6 specialized gender identity clinics in Sweden, along with information on referral date, sex assigned at birth, and birth year. Participants were all individuals younger than 19 years, referred to a gender identity clinic between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2019. Data were analyzed from May 2020 to September 2021. EXPOSURES Exposures included 3 major media events related to transgender health care in 2019; 1 event was categorized as positive and 2 events were categorized as negative press coverage. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Referral counts before and after each of the 3 major media events were assessed, and the moderating association of sex assigned at birth and age was examined with stratified analyses. Weekly referral counts and trends were assessed with interrupted time series analysis. RESULTS Among 1784 referrals (359 referrals [21.4%] among individuals aged &lt;13 years; 1034 referrals [72.1%] among individuals assigned female at birth and 401 referrals [27.9%] among individuals assigned male at birth), a negative association between media coverage and referral counts was found for the first of the negative media events. In the 3 months following the event, referrals decreased by 25.4% (95% CI, -31.9% to -18.9%) overall, by 32.2% (95 CI, -41.8% to -22.8%) for individuals assigned female at birth, and by 25.3% (95 CI, -32.4% to -18.3%) for individuals aged 13 to 18 years. In the interrupted time series analysis, a mean weekly decrease of 3% in the referrals was observed in the extended time interval of 39 weeks (incidence rate ratio, 0.97; 95 CI, 0.95 to 0.99). For the other 2 media events, no changes in referral counts or time trends were observed. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE These findings suggest that an event of negative media coverage on transgender-specific health care was negatively associated with access to health care for transgender children and adolescents; therefore, nuanced and accurate media coverage, as well as increased awareness of these mechanisms among key stakeholders, is essential

Psychometric properties and concurrent validity of the Transgender Congruence Scale (TCS) in the Swedish setting

AbstractThe Transgender Congruence Scale (TCS) is a non-binary tool used in Sweden for gender dysphoria (GD) assessment; however, its Swedish version has not been validated. To investigate the psychometric properties of the TCS, its capacity to distinguish individuals with GD and its concurrent validity compared to other scales. Patients with GD (n = 135) and controls (n = 443) filled in a questionnaire containing sociodemographic questions, the TCS, the Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale (UGDS), and the Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults (GIDYQ-AA). TCS had good discriminatory validity and internal consistency. Patients with GD, stratified by birth-assigned sex, had lower TCS scores compared to controls. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the two-factor model of the TCS. Multiple-group CFA suggested measurement invariance between birth-assigned sexes and configural invariance between patients with GD and controls. Area under the ROC curve for birth-assigned males was 0.991 and for females 0.994. A TCS mean value of three provided sensitivity 94.3% and 95.1% as well as specificity 98.6% and 98% for aM and aF, respectively. The TCS was significantly correlated to UGDS and GIDYQ-AA. The TCS may be a valuable tool in the clinical assessment of individuals with GD.</jats:p