Four Questions Nurses Can Ask to Predict PTSD 1 Year After a Motor Vehicle Crash.

BACKGROUND

The role of nurses in screening for posttraumatic stress disorder is crucial in trauma units.

OBJECTIVES

To create and evaluate an easy and brief tool for nurses to predict chronic posttraumatic stress disorder 1 year after a motor vehicle crash.

METHODS

We performed a 1-year follow-up multicenter study from 2007 to 2015, including 274 patients injured in a motor vehicle crash who were hospitalized in an orthopedic trauma unit. Nurses administered the DEPITAC questionnaire. Posttraumatic stress disorder was measured by the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist of symptoms during the first year following the crash. A multivariable logistic regression model was implemented to select items significantly associated with posttraumatic stress disorder to improve the DEPITAC questionnaire. Predictive performance to predict posttraumatic stress disorder 1 year after the motor vehicle crash was examined for these different models.

RESULTS

Of 274 patients studied, a total of 75.9% completed the questionnaire at 1 year of follow-up. We found that only two questions and two simple elements of the patient's medical record (other injury or a person dying during the crash, perception of vital threat, number of children, and length of stay in trauma) predicted posttraumatic stress disorder 1 year after a motor vehicle crash.

CONCLUSIONS

The brevity of this evaluation, simple scoring rules, and screening test performance suggest that this new screening tool can be easily administered in the acute care setting by nurses.