Posttraumatic stress disorder in the World Mental Health Surveys

By K. Koenen, A. Ratanatharathorn, L. Ng, K. A. McLaughlin, E. Bromet, Dan J Stein, E. Karam, A. Meron Ruscio, C. Benjet, K. Scott and 25 more. 2017

1,063 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background Traumatic events are common globally; however, comprehensive population-based cross-national data on the epidemiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the paradigmatic trauma-related mental disorder, are lacking. Methods Data were analyzed from 26 population surveys in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. A total of 71 083 respondents ages 18+ participated. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview assessed exposure to traumatic events as well as 30-day, 12-month, and lifetime PTSD. Respondents were also assessed for treatment in the 12 months preceding the survey. Age of onset distributions were examined by country income level. Associations of PTSD were examined with country income, world region, and respondent demographics. Results The cross-national lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 3.9% in the total sample and 5.6% among the trauma exposed. Half of respondents with PTSD reported persistent symptoms. Treatment seeking in high-income countries (53.5%) was roughly double that in low-lower middle income (22.8%) and upper-middle income (28.7%) countries. Social disadvantage, including younger age, female sex, being unmarried, being less educated, having lower household income, and being unemployed, was associated with increased risk of lifetime PTSD among the trauma exposed. Conclusions PTSD is prevalent cross-nationally, with half of all global cases being persistent. Only half of those with severe PTSD report receiving any treatment and only a minority receive specialty mental health care. Striking disparities in PTSD treatment exist by country income level. Increasing access to effective treatment, especially in low- and middle-income countries, remains critical for reducing the population burden of PTSD.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Developing an optimal short-form of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) (2019, background): “To reduce respondent burden, several short‐ form (2–6 item) versions of the DSM‐IV PCL (Bliese et al., 2008; Lang & Stein, 2005) and PCL‐5 (Price, Szafranski, van Stolk‐Cooke, & Gros, 2016) have been created along with a computer‐adaptive version of the PCL‐5 (Finkelman et al., 2017, 2018).”
The prevalence of mental illness in refugees and asylum seekers: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2020, result): “9% for PTSD [57] and 12% for any depressive disorder [58], compared to our findings of 31% for PTSD and 31.”
Trauma and PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys (2017, background): “Roughly half of people with PTSD in high income countries and about half that number in low or middle income countries seek some type of treatment (Koenen et al., 2017), but the type and duration of treatment seldom meet even minimal standards for treatment adequacy (Wang et al., 2007).”
Prevalence of PTSD, Depression and Anxiety Disorders in Correctional Officers: A Systematic Review (2019, background): “This is considerably higher than the reported lifetime prevalence of PTSD in the general population in The Netherlands which according to a synthesis of prevalence studies is 4.4% (Koenen et al., 2017).”