PMID- 9606576
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19980825
LR  - 20190905
IS  - 0010-440X (Print)
IS  - 0010-440X (Linking)
VI  - 39
IP  - 3
DP  - 1998 May-Jun
TI  - Psychiatric morbidity following motor vehicle accidents: a review of 
      methodological issues.
PG  - 111-21
AB  - Motor vehicle accidents (MVAs), even those of a nonserious nature, appear to 
      increase the risk of severe psychiatric morbidity in survivors. The present 
      review examines the evidence indicating the levels of psychiatric morbidity in 
      MVA survivors. Although no consistent profile has emerged, the most commonly 
      reported symptoms are depression, anxiety, irritability, driving phobia, anger, 
      sleep disturbances, and headache, with rates of posttraumatic stress disorder 
      (PTSD) across studies of 0% to 100%. Variability in the type and severity of 
      psychiatric outcomes may be due, in part, to methodological inadequacies in many 
      studies, particularly the use of biased population samples, inclusion of subjects 
      exposed to varied types of accidents, an absence of a clear definition of PTSD, a 
      reliance on clinical judgment rather than the use of objective psychometric 
      measures, the failure to include ratings of injury severity, and the absence of 
      assessments for past exposure to traumatic events or preexisting posttraumatic 
      reactions. The most important concern relates to the use of nonrepresentative 
      samples, usually patients referred for medicolegal assessment in whom issues of 
      compensation are of central importance. Gender and age differences distinguish 
      the compensation group from the general population of MVA survivors, who 
      therefore may also differ in the vulnerability to posttraumatic morbidity. It is 
      argued that more systematic research on unselected subject samples is critical to 
      establish epidemiological data on the true nature and extent of psychiatric 
      morbidity following MVAs.
FAU - Blaszczynski, A
AU  - Blaszczynski A
AD  - Teaching Unit, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Liverpool 
      Hospital, Australia.
FAU - Gordon, K
AU  - Gordon K
FAU - Silove, D
AU  - Silove D
FAU - Sloane, D
AU  - Sloane D
FAU - Hillman, K
AU  - Hillman K
FAU - Panasetis, P
AU  - Panasetis P
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Review
PL  - United States
TA  - Compr Psychiatry
JT  - Comprehensive psychiatry
JID - 0372612
SB  - IM
MH  - Accidents, Traffic/legislation & jurisprudence/*psychology/statistics & numerical 
      data
MH  - Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology/etiology
MH  - Australia/epidemiology
MH  - Depression/epidemiology/etiology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Mental Disorders/*epidemiology/etiology
MH  - Neurotic Disorders/epidemiology/etiology
MH  - *Research Design/standards
MH  - Risk Factors
MH  - Sampling Studies
MH  - Selection Bias
MH  - Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/diagnosis/epidemiology
MH  - Survivors/*psychology
MH  - Terminology as Topic
RF  - 70
EDAT- 1998/06/02 00:00
MHDA- 1998/06/02 00:01
CRDT- 1998/06/02 00:00
PHST- 1998/06/02 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1998/06/02 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1998/06/02 00:00 [entrez]
AID - S0010-440X(98)90069-4 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/s0010-440x(98)90069-4 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Compr Psychiatry. 1998 May-Jun;39(3):111-21. doi: 10.1016/s0010-440x(98)90069-4.