Ethnic Differences of PTSD Symptoms Development After A Major Thermal Burn Injury (2015)

Undergraduate: Claire Pauley

Faculty Advisor: Sam McLean
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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More than 700,000 individuals seek care for major thermal burn injuries (MThBIs) in the US each year. MThBI often results in long-lasting, highly morbid psychological sequelae such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Between 7 and 45% of burn patients develop PTSD after MThBI. Gender, total body surface area (TBSA), and acute stress disorder (ASD) have been researched as predictors of PTSD after MThBI, but ethnicity has not been researched. The goal of this study is to evaluate differences in rates and predictors of PTSD after MThBI in European Americans (EAs) and African Americans (AAs).
Burn patients were eligible if they were 18-59 years of age, EA or AA, suffered from a thermal burn injury that covered <30% TBSA, and required an autograft surgery. All interviews assessed PTSD severity using the posttraumatic symptom scale interview version (PSS-I). Life events checklist (LEC) score was assessed at day 7. Gender, age, and TBSA were documented from hospital records. Differences in PTSD severity between EAs and AAs were analyzed using a linear mixed effects model adjusting for gender, age, study day, TBSA, and LEC score.
AAs experienced greater severity of PTSD than EAs across all time points, but not at significance. The differences reached significance when the model was adjusted for gender, age, study day, TBSA, and LEC score.
Results suggest that PTSD severity is greater in AAs than in EAs after controlling for these factors. Further studies are needed.