Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Illnesses: Probable Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors

Abstract

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Illnesses: Probable Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors (2023-11-29) Bin Haamed, Haifa; Waller, Glenn; Norman, Paul Thesis Abstract Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) refer to the symptoms that an individual can develop post-exposure to a stressful event. Exposure to chronic medical trauma has been found to be associated with PTSD and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Many risk factors have been found to be associated with the development of PTSD and GAD among people exposed to a chronic medical trauma. These risk factors include medical/clinical, demographic and psychological factors. The research presented in this thesis investigated several risk factors associated with PTSD and GAD symptomology. The main risk factors that were found to be associated with PTSD and GAD symptom severity were psychological factors, including coping responses, perceived level of social support, perceived level of support from mental health professionals, and COVID-19 anxiety. Chapter 1 is a general introduction to this thesis. Chapter 2 includes a systematic review that synthesised the empirical evidence of PTSD among young individuals diagnosed with chronic medical illness. Chapter 3 presents a cross-sectional study that aimed to identify risk factors associated with PTSD within an adult sample with a history of different chronic illnesses. The thesis then focuses on one chronic illness specifically (cancer) examining the probable prevalence rate of PTSD and GAD, and associated risk factors among patients engaged with cancer support groups (Chapter 4). Chapter 5 examines whether the identified risk factors and the estimated prevalence were specific to the patients who engaged with support groups or whether they can also be generalizable to other cancer populations. Further, the study describes the viability of using the crowdsourcing platform PROLIFIC to recruit cancer patients, and the advantages and challenges of using such platforms to conduct clinical/health studies. This project contributes to the understanding of the development of mental disorders such as PTSD and GAD among medical populations. Chapter 5 is a general discussion, bringing together the outcomes of the thesis studies and highlighting previous studies related to the thesis outcome. Implications of the thesis studies was provided outlining recommendations for the early clinical intervention and for the future research directions. The key implications includes that the identification of the risk factors that were associated with PTSD and GAD symptomology (e.g., the high use of anxious preoccupation and hopelessness/helplessness as a coping strategies) should guide clinician/researcher when developing clinical prevention/intervention programmes that would target PTSD/GAD symptomology among patients of chronic illness.