ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the prevalence of traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in an admission cohort of schizophrenic patients from two university affiliated psychiatric units in Korea. Differences in symptomatology between those with and without trauma were also assessed. METHODS: The consecutive sixty one inpatients (32 women and 29 men), who were diagnosed with schizophrenia by SCID-I, completed the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), Beck Depression Inventory, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. RESULTS: Forty patients (66%) had at least one traumatic event in their life time. The most common traumatic event was child physical abuse (34%), followed by accidents (21%), traumatic loss (18%), witnessing violence (15%), child sexual abuse (10%), natural disaster (8%), adult physical assaults (8%), adult sexual assaults (5%), and psychotic symptoms (5%). Only one patient (2%), however, was diagnosed with current PTSD. Patients with traumatic events compared to those without traumatic events demonstrated significantly higher scores on State anxiety scale (p=.006) and several subscales of SCL-90-R including paranoia, anxiety, phobia, interpersonal sensitivity, and degree of psychosis. No differences of sociodemographic and clinical background variables were found between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Low rate (2%) of current PTSD found in this study is comparable to North American literature reporting 10-46% of PTSD within the schizophrenic population. Absence of substance abuse or homelessness and low rate of sexual violence in these Korean patients may explain the discrepant rates. However, distinct symptom profiles of patients with trauma may suggest that PTSD diagnosis runs short of describing such patients. The results from this study imply that schizophrenia per se may not be associated with increased prevalence in current PTSD diagnosis.