The Relationship of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Developmental Trauma Disorder with Childhood Psychopathology: A network analysis

Matthias Knefel, Thanos Karatzias, Joseph Spinazzola, M Shevlin, Julian Ford

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
49 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objective
Potentially traumatic experiences are a major risk factor for mental disorders in children and adolescents. Posttraumatic psychopathology includes trauma-specific disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as other psychiatric disorders. Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) has been proposed as a developmentally sensitive diagnosis. We aimed to further illuminate the co-occurrence of psychiatric conditions with DTD and PTSD.

Method
In a convenience sample of families of 507 children and adolescents (mean age = 12.11 years old, SD = 2.92; 48.5% female), we assessed DTD, PTSD, and screened for psychiatric disorders. We estimated network models including DTD, PTSD and ten psychiatric conditions.

Results
We found that DTD and PTSD share both common and differential comorbidity features on disorder-, domain-, and symptom-level. The differential comorbidity patterns of the DTD and PTSD domains placed DTD close to both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology while PTSD was primarily linked to internalizing conditions.

Conclusions
Our study provides evidence for the complex clinical presentation of posttraumatic psychopathology over and above PTSD in children. DTD and PTSD provide useful and distinct diagnostic categories for children who are also experiencing internalizing conditions, and DTD may be especially relevant for children who are experiencing externalizing psychopathology.
Original languageEnglish
Article number102766
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Anxiety Disorders
Volume99
Early online date7 Sept 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished online - 7 Sept 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The study was funded by the Lookout Foundation, Joseph Spinazzola , Ph.D., and Julian Ford, Ph.D., Principal Investigators. No organizational or individual funder had any role in the conduct or publication of this study.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

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