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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population

Background: People with a visual impairment appear to have an increased risk of experiencing potentially traumatizing life events and possibly also subsequently developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study investigated the point prevalence of PTSD in people with a visual impairment c...

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Autores principales: Bonsaksen, Tore, Brunes, Audun, Heir, Trond
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775682/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35055443
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020619
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author Bonsaksen, Tore
Brunes, Audun
Heir, Trond
author_facet Bonsaksen, Tore
Brunes, Audun
Heir, Trond
author_sort Bonsaksen, Tore
collection PubMed
description Background: People with a visual impairment appear to have an increased risk of experiencing potentially traumatizing life events and possibly also subsequently developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study investigated the point prevalence of PTSD in people with a visual impairment compared with the general population of Norway and examined factors associated with PTSD among people with a visual impairment. Methods: A telephone-based survey was administered to a probability sample of 1216 adults with a visual impairment. Of these, 736 (61% response rate) participated. A probability sample from the general population served as a reference (n = 1792, 36% response rate). PTSD was measured with the PTSD Checklist for the DSM-5 (PCL-5), based on the currently most bothersome event reported from the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5). We used the DSM-5 diagnostic guidelines to categorize participants as fulfilling the PTSD symptom criteria or not. Results: The prevalence of PTSD was higher among people with a visual impairment than in the general population, both for men (9.0% vs. 3.8%) and women (13.9% vs. 8.5%). The prevalence rates of PTSD from the illness or injury that had caused the vision loss (men 3.9%, women 2.2%) accounted for a considerable part of the difference between the populations. For women, PTSD related to sexual assaults also contributed significantly to a higher PTSD prevalence in the visually impaired versus the general population (5.2% vs. 2.2%), while for men there were no other event categories which resulted in significant differences. Among people with a visual impairment, the higher risk of PTSD was associated with lower age, female gender, having acquired the vision loss, and having other impairments in addition to the vision loss. Conclusion: The higher prevalence of PTSD in people with a visual impairment suggests that vulnerability to mental health problems is associated with serious life events. The higher incidence than in the general population is partly due to the illness or injury that had led to the vision loss and partly due to people with vision loss appearing to be more vulnerable through exposure to other types of potentially traumatizing events, such as sexual abuse.
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spelling pubmed-87756822022-01-21 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population Bonsaksen, Tore Brunes, Audun Heir, Trond Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: People with a visual impairment appear to have an increased risk of experiencing potentially traumatizing life events and possibly also subsequently developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study investigated the point prevalence of PTSD in people with a visual impairment compared with the general population of Norway and examined factors associated with PTSD among people with a visual impairment. Methods: A telephone-based survey was administered to a probability sample of 1216 adults with a visual impairment. Of these, 736 (61% response rate) participated. A probability sample from the general population served as a reference (n = 1792, 36% response rate). PTSD was measured with the PTSD Checklist for the DSM-5 (PCL-5), based on the currently most bothersome event reported from the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5). We used the DSM-5 diagnostic guidelines to categorize participants as fulfilling the PTSD symptom criteria or not. Results: The prevalence of PTSD was higher among people with a visual impairment than in the general population, both for men (9.0% vs. 3.8%) and women (13.9% vs. 8.5%). The prevalence rates of PTSD from the illness or injury that had caused the vision loss (men 3.9%, women 2.2%) accounted for a considerable part of the difference between the populations. For women, PTSD related to sexual assaults also contributed significantly to a higher PTSD prevalence in the visually impaired versus the general population (5.2% vs. 2.2%), while for men there were no other event categories which resulted in significant differences. Among people with a visual impairment, the higher risk of PTSD was associated with lower age, female gender, having acquired the vision loss, and having other impairments in addition to the vision loss. Conclusion: The higher prevalence of PTSD in people with a visual impairment suggests that vulnerability to mental health problems is associated with serious life events. The higher incidence than in the general population is partly due to the illness or injury that had led to the vision loss and partly due to people with vision loss appearing to be more vulnerable through exposure to other types of potentially traumatizing events, such as sexual abuse. MDPI 2022-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8775682/ /pubmed/35055443 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020619 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bonsaksen, Tore
Brunes, Audun
Heir, Trond
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population
title Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population
title_full Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population
title_fullStr Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population
title_full_unstemmed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population
title_short Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Visual Impairment Compared with the General Population
title_sort post-traumatic stress disorder in people with visual impairment compared with the general population
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775682/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35055443
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020619
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