Acute Stress Disorder After Burn Injury: A Predictor of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

OBJECTIVES: The principal goals of this study were to determine whether ASD predicted chronic PTSD and whether dissociation is more characteristic of the acute-trauma period than PTSD symptoms. METHODS: Eighty-three hospitalized adult burn patients were assessed with structured interviews and self-report measures within 2 weeks of injury and again at least 6 months postburn. RESULTS: Nineteen percent had ASD. Dissociative symptoms were not more common or more severe than PTSD symptoms. Thirty-six percent had chronic PTSD. While ASD predicted chronic PTSD, meeting the symptom criteria for PTSD within 2 weeks postburn also predicted chronic PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: Our data support the inclusion of an ASD diagnosis in the DSM, which would allow the diagnosis of symptoms in the first month posttrauma as a psychiatric disorder but questions whether dissociation is more characteristic of the acute trauma period than the PTSD symptom clusters.