• J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis · Feb 2014

    Diagnosis of spontaneous cervical artery dissection may be associated with increased prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder.

    • Verena Speck, Adam Noble, Rainer Kollmar, and Thomas Schenk.
    • Department of Neurology, University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany.
    • J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis. 2014 Feb 1;23(2):335-42.

    BackgroundReceiving information that one has a dissected cervical artery, which can cause a stroke at any time, is obviously traumatic, but details about the psychiatric and psychosocial sequelae are not known. We investigated the prevalence of and risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with spontaneous cervical artery dissection (CD) and the impact of PTSD on their psychosocial functioning.MethodsPatients admitted because of CD between 2006 and 2010 were retrospectively examined using a diagnostic PTSD measure (Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale). Patients between 2011 and 2012 were examined prospectively. To identify potential predictors for PTSD, we examined all patients' stress coping strategies (brief COPE inventory), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), impairment by preventive medication, time since diagnosis and their neurologic (modified Rankin Scale) and cognitive status. To identify the psychosocial impact of PTSD, we examined quality of life (Short-Form 36).ResultsData of 47 retrospectively contacted patients and 15 prospectively examined patients were included. Twenty-eight patients (45.2%) met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. A significantly reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was found in 27 patients (43.5%) for mental health and in 8 patients (12.9%) for physical health. Results of logistic regression analysis revealed that the use of maladaptive coping strategies was predictive of the disorder (P < .0001). Age, sex, mRS score, impairment caused by medication, and time since diagnosis were not predictive for PTSD. The presence of PTSD itself was the only significant predictor for reduced mental HRQol (P = .0004). Age, sex, mRS score, impairment caused by medication, and total Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score were not predictive for reduced mental HRQoL.ConclusionsPTSD seems to occur frequently in patients with CD and is associated with reduced mental HRQoL. Because the presence of a maladaptive coping style is correlated with PTSD, teaching patients better coping skills might be helpful.Copyright © 2014 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…