Acute Stress Disorder After Burn Injury: A Predictor of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

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Abstract
The principal goals of this study were to determine whether ASD predicted chronic PTSD and whether dissociation is more characteristic of the acute-trauma period than PTSD symptoms. Eighty-three hospitalized adult burn patients were assessed with structured interviews and self-report measures within 2 weeks of injury and again at least 6 months postburn. Nineteen percent had ASD. Dissociative symptoms were not more common or more severe than PTSD symptoms. Thirty-six percent had chronic PTSD. While ASD predicted chronic PTSD, meeting the symptom criteria for PTSD within 2 weeks postburn also predicted chronic PTSD. Our data support the inclusion of an ASD diagnosis in the DSM, which would allow the diagnosis of symptoms in the first month posttrauma as a psychiatric disorder but questions whether dissociation is more characteristic of the acute trauma period than the PTSD symptom clusters.

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