Can Sudden, Severe Emotional Loss Be a Traumatic Stressor?

• Published in: Journal of trauma & dissociation Vol. 14; no. 5; pp. 519 - 528
• Main Authors: Carlson, Eve B., Smith, Steve R., Dalenberg, Constance J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Binghampton, NY Routledge 01.10.2013; Haworth Press; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Biological and medical sciences; diagnostic criteria; Dissociative Disorders - psychology; Emotions; Female; Humans; Life Change Events; Male; Medical sciences; Mental health care; Middle Aged; Post traumatic stress disorder; posttraumatic stress; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; PTSD; Regression analysis; Risk Factors; Social Class; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; stressor criterion; trauma; traumatic stress; traumatic stressors; Affect affectivity; diagnostic criteria; traumatic stress; Anxiety disorder; Emotion emotionality; Posttraumatic stress disorder; stressor criterion; Trauma; Stress; PTSD; posttraumatic stress; Criterion; traumatic stressors; Diagnosis
• ISSN: 1529-9732; 1529-9740
• DOI: 10.1080/15299732.2013.773475

Aspects of the stressor criterion for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been controversial since its inception, and the theoretical or empirical reasons for decisions about it have not been clear. To investigate whether sudden events involving severe emotional loss have the potential to precipitate PTSD, we assessed exposure to Criterion A stressors, sudden abandonment, sudden move or loss of home, and symptoms of PTSD and dissociation in a community sample of 427 adults. In regression analyses, models that included a severe emotional loss stressor accounted for a significant amount of additional variance in PTSD and dissociation symptoms beyond that accounted for by a model including only Criterion A stressors. The findings suggest that limiting Criterion A1 to events involving actual or threatened death or injury may be overly restrictive. Future research is needed to replicate these findings in a clinical sample and to prospectively examine the conditional probability of PTSD following these events.