PTSD symptoms and pain in Canadian military veterans: the mediating roles of anxiety, depression, and alcohol use.

Publisher: Wiley Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 8809259 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-6598 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 08949867 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Trauma Stress Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2005- : Hoboken, NJ : Wiley
Original Publication: New York ; London : Plenum Press, c1988-

Alcohol Drinking/*psychology ; Anxiety Disorders/*psychology ; Chronic Pain/*psychology ; Depressive Disorder/*psychology ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/*psychology ; Veterans/*psychology; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Alberta ; Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology ; Anxiety Disorders/diagnosis ; Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology ; Arousal ; Avoidance Learning ; Canada/epidemiology ; Chronic Pain/diagnosis ; Chronic Pain/epidemiology ; Comorbidity ; Confidence Intervals ; Depressive Disorder/diagnosis ; Depressive Disorder/epidemiology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Severity of Illness Index ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/diagnosis ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/epidemiology ; Veterans/statistics & numerical data ; Young Adult

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and pain are often comorbid among veterans. The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent symptoms of anxiety, depression, and alcohol use mediated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and pain among 113 treated male Canadian veterans. Measures of PTSD, pain, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and alcohol use were collected as part of the initial assessment. The bootstrapped resampling analyses were consistent with the hypothesis of mediation for anxiety and depression, but not alcohol use. The confidence intervals did not include zero and the indirect effect of PTSD on pain through anxiety was .04, CI [.03, .07]. The indirect effect of PTSD on pain through depression was .04, CI [.02, .07]. These findings suggest that PTSD and pain symptoms among veterans may be related through the underlying symptoms of anxiety and depression, thus emphasizing the importance of targeting anxiety and depression symptoms when treating comorbid PTSD and pain patients.
(© 2014 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.)

Date Created: 20140319 Date Completed: 20141212 Latest Revision: 20220316

20240104

10.1002/jts.21897

24639069