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Background: Young adult sexual minority women (SMW) are at elevated risk for sexual assault (SA), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and inadequate social support. While SA and PTSD can lead to reductions in social support from close significant others, the impact of SA and PTSD on SMWs’ social support has not previously been assessed. Objective: This study examined the associations of past year SA and PTSD with SMW’s social support from intimate partners, family, and friends. It was hypothesized that SA and PTSD would be negatively associated with support from partners, family and friends, and that PTSD would moderate the effect of SA on support in early adulthood. Method: Young adult SMW in the United States (N = 235) who were M = 23.93 (SD = 2.15) years old, primarily lesbian or bisexual (n = 186, 79.1%) and White (n = 176, 74.9%) completed measures on past year exposure to SA and non-SA trauma, PTSD, and social support from intimate partners, family and friends. Results: PTSD was associated with less social support from partners, (b = −0.06, SE = 0.02, p = .010, R² change= .02), family, (b = −0.06, SE = 0.03, p = .025, R² change= .02), and friends, (b = −0.07, SE = 0.02, p = .008, R² change= .02). There was a significant interaction between PTSD and SA on social support from partners (b = −0.01, SE = 0.01, p = .047, R2 change= .01). Neither non-SA nor SA trauma was associated with support from family or friends. Conclusions: Results underscore the potential impact of recent SA on intimate partnerships for young adult SMW with more severe PTSD. Future work should explore how addressing PTSD and improving social support quality may help SMW recover from traumatic experiences and ameliorate the effects of SA on intimate partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social support is a protective factor against the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, examinations of the social support after trauma have relied primarily on the self-reports of trauma survivors to the exclusion of their support providers. A new measure, the Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire (SOEQ) was adapted from a well-established behavioral coding schema of support behaviors to capture social support experiences from the support provider perspective. 513 Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) recruited on MTurk who had served as support providers to a traumatically injured romantic partner were recruited to respond to SOEQ candidate items and other relevant measures of psychopathology and relational factors. Factor analytic, correlational and regression analyses were conducted. Confirmatory factor analytic results of SOEQ candidate items provide evidence for three support types (i.e., informational, tangible, and emotional) and two support processes (i.e., frequency, difficulty), producing a final 11-item version of the SOEQ. Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity provide good psychometric support for the measure. Evidence of construct validity was derived from support for two hypotheses: (1) difficulty providing social support is negatively associated with CSO perceptions of trauma survivor recovery, (2) social support provision frequency is positively associated with relationship satisfaction. Though factor loadings for support types were significant, several were small, limiting interpretability. Cross-validation in a separate sample is needed. The final version of the SOEQ demonstrated promising psychometric properties, and can provide key information one the experiences of CSOs as social support providers for trauma survivors. • We adapted a measure of Social Support from the support provider perspective. • The measure had promising psychometric properties. • Difficulty providing support was associated with perceptions of trauma nonrecovery. • Social support frequency was positively associated with relationship satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been conducted in high-income countries (HICs). However, PTSD and AUD commonly co-occur (PTSD þ AUD) are both associated with high global burden of disease, and disproportionately impact those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This narrative review attempts to synthesize the research on prevalence, impact, etiological models, and treatment of PTSD þ AUD drawing from research conducted in HICs and discussing the research that has been conducted to date in LMICs. The review also discusses overall limitations in the field, including a lack of research on PTSD þ AUD outside of HICs, issues with measurement of key constructs, and limitations in sampling strategies across comorbidity studies. Future directions are discussed, including a need for rigorous research studies conducted in LMICs that focus on both etiological mechanisms and on treatment approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to traumatic events places individuals at high risk for multiple psychiatric disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The high rates of comorbidity among these conditions merit evaluation in order to improve diagnosis and treatment approaches. The current study evaluated the association between PTSD, MDD, and GAD factors as presented in the DSM 5. 602 trauma-exposed individuals who experienced an event that met Criterion A for the DSM 5 PTSD diagnosis were recruited through Amazon.com, Inc.'s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to complete an assessment of the impact of stressful events on their lives. High interrelations were detected among the 4 PTSD factors, 2 MDD factors that corresponded to somatic and affective symptoms, and the single GAD factor. The affective factor of MDD was most strongly related to the emotional numbing factor of PTSD, whereas the somatic factor of MDD was most strongly related to the hyperarousal factor of PTSD. The GAD factor was most strongly related to the hyperarousal factor of PTSD, relative to the other PTSD factors. The strength of the interrelations between factors of the three disorders is largely a function of the overlap in symptoms and calls into question the uniqueness of negative affective symptoms of PTSD, MDD and GAD. Results suggest that improved understanding of the trauma reaction requires a focus on the unique presentation of each individual and assessment of multiple disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: PTSD is posited to develop in the acute posttrauma period. Few studies have examined psychopathology symptoms within this period due to the demands on individuals in the first month after a trauma. Mobile devices can overcome these barriers. The feasibility of using mobile devices for this purpose, however, is unclear. Objective: The present study evaluated the acceptability of administering PTSD symptom assessments via a mobile application throughout the acute posttrauma period. Method: Participants (N = 90) were recruited from a Level 1 Trauma Center within M = 4.88 days of experiencing a traumatic event. A mobile application was placed on their smartphone that administered a daily self-report assessment of PTSD symptoms for 30 days. Participants were compensated US$1 for each assessment completed. Results: The overall response rate was 61.1% or M = 18.33, SD = 9.12 assessments. Assessments were accessed M = 65.2 minutes after participants were notified to complete them and took M = 2.52 minutes to complete. Participants reported that the daily assessments were not bothersome and were moderately helpful. Conclusion: The present study suggests that using mobile devices to monitor mental health symptoms during the acute posttrauma period is feasible and acceptable. Strategies are needed to determine how to best take advantage of these data once collected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a significant public health concern associated with marked impairment across the lifespan. Exposure to traumatic events alone, however, is insufficient to determine if an individual has PTSD. PTSD is a heterogeneous diagnosis such that assessment of all 20 symptoms is problematic in time-limited treatment settings. Brief assessment tools that identify those at risk for PTSD and measure symptom severity are needed to improve access to care and assess treatment response. The present study evaluated abbreviated measures of PTSD symptoms derived from the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) – a 20-item validated measure of PTSD symptoms – across two studies. In the first, using a community sample of adults exposed to a traumatic event, 4-and 8-item versions of the PCL-5 were identified that were highly correlated with the full PCL-5. In the second, using a sample of combat veterans, the 4-and 8-item measures had comparable diagnostic utility to the total-scale PCL-5. These results provide support for an abbreviated measure of the PCL-5 as an alternative to the 20-item total scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A range of risk factors lead to opioid use and substance-related problems (SRP) including childhood maltreatment, elevated impulsivity, and psychopathology. These constructs are highly interrelated such that childhood maltreatment is associated with elevated impulsivity and trauma-related psychopathology such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and impulsivity-particularly urgency-and PTSD are related. Prior work has examined the association between these constructs and substance-related problems independently and it is unclear how these multi-faceted constructs (i.e., maltreatment types and positive and negative urgency) are associated with one another and SRP. The current study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relations among childhood maltreatment, trait urgency, PTSD symptoms, and SRP in a sample of individuals with a history of opioid use. An initial model that included paths from each type of childhood maltreatment, positive and negative urgency, PTSD and SRP did not fit the data well. A pruned model with excellent fit was identified that suggested emotional abuse, positive urgency, and negative urgency were directly related to PTSD symptoms and only PTSD symptoms were directly related to SRP. Furthermore, significant indirect effects suggested that emotional abuse and negative urgency were related to SRP via PTSD symptom severity. These results suggest that PTSD plays an important role in the severity of SRP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]