A longitudinal follow-up of posttraumatic stress: from 9 months to 20 years after a major road traffic accident

A longitudinal follow-up of posttraumatic stress: from 9 months to 20 years after a major road traffic accident

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Abstract Background Although road traffic accidents (RTA) are a major cause of injury and a cause of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in the aftermath, little is known about the long-term psychological effects of RTA.Methods This prospective longitudinal study assessed long-term PTS, grief, and general mental health after a bus carrying 23 sixth-grade schoolchildren crashed on a school outing and 12 children died.Directly affected (i.

e., children in the crash) and indirectly affected children (i.e.

, all pupils in the sixth grade who Wraps were not in the crash) were surveyed at 9 months (N = 102), 4 years (N = 51), and 20 years (N = 40) after the event.Psychological distress was assessed by single items, including sadness, avoidance, intrusions, and guilt.After 20 years, PTS was assessed by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised.

Results Stress reactions were prevalent 9 months after the event, with sadness (69%) and avoidance (59%) being highly represented in both directly and indirectly affected groups, whereas, nightmares (60%) and feelings of guilt (50%) were only frequent in those directly affected.The frequency of sadness and avoidance decreased after 4 years in the indirectly exposed (ps p =.003), but not decreased Industrial:Restaurant general mental health (p =.

14), than those indirectly affected.Conclusions The limitations preclude assertive conclusions.Nonetheless, the findings corroborate previous studies reporting traumatic events are associated with long-term PTS, but not with decreased general mental health.