The role of trauma experiences, personality traits, and genotype in maintaining posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms a
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
The role of trauma experiences, personality traits, and genotype in maintaining posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among child survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake Yuwei Li, Qiuyue Lv, Bin Li, Dan Luo, Xueli Sun* and Jiajun Xu*
Abstract Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most prevalent type of psychiatric disorder among children after an earthquake. This study investigated the role of trauma experiences, personality traits, and genotype in the maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Methods: In a previous large-scale epidemiological investigation 1 year after the Wenchuan earthquake, 215 children with PTSD symptoms were selected at random with their blood samples collected. All of them were followed up, and their PTSD symptoms were assessed 3 years later. The adolescent version of the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index, the earthquake exposure scale, and the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire were used to determine PTSD symptoms, trauma experiences, and personality traits, respectively. We sequenced candidate genes involved in the regulation of long-term potentiation via NMDA-type receptors to identify the related SNP variations. Results: Being trapped for a longer period of time, feeling one’s own or a family member’s life to be in danger, losing a close family member or friend, extraversion, neuroticism, TrkB, G72 and CNTF were found to be associated with the maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: Experiences, personality traits, and genotype influenced the maintenance of PTSD in child survivors who were considered to be followed up without medicine. This result could help to identify potential targets for treatment and promote the rational allocation of medical resources. Keywords: Posttraumatic stress disorder, Children, Earthquake, Personality traits, Long-term potentiation
Background Earthquakes are one of the most unpredictable natural disasters and have a massive influence on the psychological and physical state of survivors. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most prevalent type of psychiatric disorder among earthquake survivors, and it can be defined * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] Mental Health Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
as delayed but lasting psychological stress disorder [1]. It is also a disabling disorder related to high comorbidity rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation [2]. Recent studies have suggested that the point prevalence rate of PTSD among child survivors after earthquakes is 12.4– 28.4% [3–5], and trauma could have a lasting impact on children’s developing brain and body [6]. Numerous empirical studies support the efficacy of trauma-focused psychological interventions [7, 8] and
© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s)
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