• Erin Sullivan, Jordin Shelley, Evan Rainey, Monica Bennett, Purvi Prajapati, Mark B Powers, Michael Foreman, and Ann Marie Warren.
• University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle, Denton, TX 76203, United States. Electronic address: ErinSullivan2@my.unt.edu.
• Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2017 May 1; 46: 49-54.

ObjectiveThe present study examined the relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and depression symptoms with hospital outcome measures to explore how psychiatric factors relate to hospital length of stay (LOS).MethodParticipants were adults admitted to a large Level I Trauma Center for longer than 24h. Depression was assessed at hospitalization using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8), and PTSS was measured by the Primary Care PTSD Screen (PC-PTSD). Hospital outcome information was collected from the hospital's trauma registry. Pearson correlations were performed.Results460 participants (mean age=44years, SD=16.8; 65.4% male) completed the study. Baseline PTSS and depression were significantly correlated with longer hospital LOS while controlling for demographics and injury severity (p=0.026; p=0.023). Both PTSS-positive and depression-positive groups had an average increased hospital LOS of two days.ConclusionsA significant proportion of individuals who are admitted to the hospital following trauma may be at risk for depression and PTSS, which may then increase hospital LOS. As national attention turns to reducing healthcare costs, early screenings and interventions may aid in minimizing psychiatric symptoms in trauma patients, in turn reducing the cost and outcomes associated with total hospital LOS.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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