Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service Members
Objective: Active-duty military personnel in the current wars have experienced unique stressors that deviate from standard PTSD assessment and diagnosis. This situation calls for a refinement of military-related PTSD assessment. To this end, this study assessed the utility of the Trauma Symptom Inve...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Trauma Care |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-866X/4/1/2 |
| _version_ | 1797239143493795840 |
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| author | Angela Sekely Hinza B. Malik Kayla B. Miller Yishi Wang Antonio E. Puente |
| author_facet | Angela Sekely Hinza B. Malik Kayla B. Miller Yishi Wang Antonio E. Puente |
| author_sort | Angela Sekely |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective: Active-duty military personnel in the current wars have experienced unique stressors that deviate from standard PTSD assessment and diagnosis. This situation calls for a refinement of military-related PTSD assessment. To this end, this study assessed the utility of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) in diagnosing PTSD among active-duty military personnel. The past literature has validated the TSI using populations with a small sample size. Hence, this study aimed to fill the gap by using a large sample size of 670 military members to examine whether the TSI is useful for military populations. Setting: Participants were referred to Carolina Psychological Health Services, in Jacksonville, North Carolina by military neurologists and other qualified medical officers from the Naval Hospital in Camp Lejeune, a military base located in Jacksonville, NC, for neuropsychological evaluation due to reported cognitive deficits related to military deployment (i.e., head injury due to exposure to blast injuries). Participants: Based on clinical diagnosis, comprehensive neuropsychological testing, and self-reported data, personnel were classified into four groups: blast exposure (n = 157), PTSD diagnosis (n = 90), both blast exposure and PTSD (n = 283), and neither blast exposure nor PTSD (n = 140), which helps provide a comprehensive picture of the utility of the TSI. Results: The TSI’s 10 clinical scales could distinguish between all groups. Discriminant function analysis showed that an optimally weighted combination of scales correctly predicted 66.67% of PTSD-positive cases and 35.11% of PTSD-negative cases. Conclusion: These findings provide support for the use of the TSI in the assessment of PTSD in active-duty military personnel. Due to the release of TSI-2, there is a need to replicate this data. However, the validity data has indicated a high concordance between the TSI and TSI-2, bolstering confidence in the current findings of the study. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T17:46:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-112b39b95f8f45179e43eb7f9e4a50f2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-866X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T17:46:51Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Trauma Care |
| spelling | doaj.art-112b39b95f8f45179e43eb7f9e4a50f22024-03-27T14:06:30ZengMDPI AGTrauma Care2673-866X2024-01-0141102110.3390/traumacare4010002Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service MembersAngela Sekely0Hinza B. Malik1Kayla B. Miller2Yishi Wang3Antonio E. Puente4Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USADepartment of Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USAFlorida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USADepartment of Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USADepartment of Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USAObjective: Active-duty military personnel in the current wars have experienced unique stressors that deviate from standard PTSD assessment and diagnosis. This situation calls for a refinement of military-related PTSD assessment. To this end, this study assessed the utility of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) in diagnosing PTSD among active-duty military personnel. The past literature has validated the TSI using populations with a small sample size. Hence, this study aimed to fill the gap by using a large sample size of 670 military members to examine whether the TSI is useful for military populations. Setting: Participants were referred to Carolina Psychological Health Services, in Jacksonville, North Carolina by military neurologists and other qualified medical officers from the Naval Hospital in Camp Lejeune, a military base located in Jacksonville, NC, for neuropsychological evaluation due to reported cognitive deficits related to military deployment (i.e., head injury due to exposure to blast injuries). Participants: Based on clinical diagnosis, comprehensive neuropsychological testing, and self-reported data, personnel were classified into four groups: blast exposure (n = 157), PTSD diagnosis (n = 90), both blast exposure and PTSD (n = 283), and neither blast exposure nor PTSD (n = 140), which helps provide a comprehensive picture of the utility of the TSI. Results: The TSI’s 10 clinical scales could distinguish between all groups. Discriminant function analysis showed that an optimally weighted combination of scales correctly predicted 66.67% of PTSD-positive cases and 35.11% of PTSD-negative cases. Conclusion: These findings provide support for the use of the TSI in the assessment of PTSD in active-duty military personnel. Due to the release of TSI-2, there is a need to replicate this data. However, the validity data has indicated a high concordance between the TSI and TSI-2, bolstering confidence in the current findings of the study.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-866X/4/1/2Trauma Symptom InventorymilitarytraumaPTSDblast injury |
| spellingShingle | Angela Sekely Hinza B. Malik Kayla B. Miller Yishi Wang Antonio E. Puente Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service Members Trauma Care Trauma Symptom Inventory military trauma PTSD blast injury |
| title | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service Members |
| title_full | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service Members |
| title_fullStr | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service Members |
| title_full_unstemmed | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service Members |
| title_short | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Blast Exposure in Active-Duty Military Service Members |
| title_sort | post traumatic stress disorder and blast exposure in active duty military service members |
| topic | Trauma Symptom Inventory military trauma PTSD blast injury |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-866X/4/1/2 |
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