Full PTSD Not Induced by Hip Fracture

HealthDay News — For older individuals, hip fracture does not induce full posttraumatic stress disorder, according to a study published online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Sarah L. Kornfield, PhD, from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and colleagues conducted a longitudinal prospective study involving 456 individuals aged 60 years and older admitted for surgical hip fracture repair after a fall. The authors compared the rates of partial PTSD (pPTSD) and full PTSD (Fptsd) with the rates of fear of falling (FoF), assessed at 4 and 12 weeks after surgery.

The researchers found that no participants met the criteria for fPTSD at 4 or 12 weeks after surgery, and the rate of pPTSD was 7.4 percent at 12 weeks after surgery, in contrast to a rate of FoF of 58.5 percent at the same time point. There were correlations for higher ratings of stress and depressive symptoms at baseline with higher levels of PTSD symptoms at 12 weeks after surgery.

“Hip fracture, despite its considerable morbidity, does not induce fPTSD and infrequently induces pPTSD,” the authors write. “Individuals with higher rates of stress and depressive symptoms after hip fracture repair may be more likely to develop PTSD symptoms.”

Reference

Kornfield SL, Lenze EJ, Rawson KS. Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Association with Fear of Falling After Hip Fracture. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2017; doi: 10.1111/jgs.14771. [Epub ahead of print]