Family functioning, trauma exposure and PTSD in a middle-income community sample: Abstract of the 25th European Congress of Psychiatry

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Abstract

Introduction: Only a minority of trauma-exposed individuals go on to develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous studies in high-income countries suggest that maladaptive family functioning adversities (MFFA) in childhood may partially ex-plain individual variation in vulnerability to PTSD following trauma. We test in a lower middle income setting (Sri Lanka) whether: (1) MFFA moderates the association between exposure to trauma and later (a) PTSD (b) other psychiatric diagnoses; (2) any moderation by MFFA is explained by experiences of interpersonal violence, cumulative trauma exposure or other psychopathology.

Methods: We conducted a population study of 3995 twins and 2019 singletons residing in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Participants completed the composite international diagnostic interview, including nine traumatic exposures and a questionnaire on MFFA.

Results: In total, 23.4% of participants reported exposure to MFFA. We found that (1) MFFA moderates the association between trauma exposure and both (a) PTSD and (b) non-PTSD diagnosis. (2) This was not explained by interpersonal violence, cumulative trauma exposure or other psychopathology.

Conclusions: In our sample MFFA moderates the association between trauma and PTSD, and the association between trauma and non-PTSD psychopathology.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)S157
JournalEuropean Psychiatry
Volume41, Supplement
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 30 Jun 2017

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