Posttraumatic stress disorder in peers of adolescent suicide victims: predisposing factors and phenomenology.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the factors predisposing to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in peers of adolescent suicide victims.

METHOD: One hundred forty-six adolescents who were the friends of 26 suicide victims were studied. Five percent (n = 8) developed PTSD after exposure to suicide. These 8 subjects with PTSD were compared to the remainder of the exposed subjects (n = 138).

RESULTS

Subjects with PTSD were more likely than those without PTSD to have had a history of substance abuse, agoraphobia, and suicide attempts. Subjects who developed PTSD were more likely to have developed a new-onset depression, to have more severe grief, and to have been closer to the suicide victim. Subjects with PTSD tended to have more severe exposure to suicide and came from discordant households with a history of disruptions in key relationships. The 8 subjects who developed PTSD were compared to 38 subjects who developed new-onset depression but not PTSD. Those with PTSD were more likely to have had past substance abuse, prior suicide attempts, family history of panic disorder, a history of parent-child disruption, and a history of loss. Symptoms of intrusive visual images, hypervigilance, and avoidance of reminders discriminated subjects who had PTSD from new-onset depressives without PTSD.

CONCLUSIONS

PTSD is an expectable outcome in youth exposed to suicide. Further work is required to differentiate symptoms of depression from PTSD.