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Family Functioning, Trauma Exposure and PTSD in a Middle-income Community Sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

H. Zavos
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
H. Ball
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
P. McGuffin
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
A. Sumathipala
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
S. Siribaddana
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
F. Rijsdijk
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
S.L. Hatch
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
M. Hotopf
Affiliation:
King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom

Abstract

Introduction

Only a minority of trauma-exposed individuals go on to develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous studies in high-income countries suggest that maladaptive family functioning adversities (MFFA) in childhood may partially ex-plain individual variation in vulnerability to PTSD following trauma. We test in a lower middle income setting (Sri Lanka) whether: (1) MFFA moderates the association between exposure to trauma and later (a) PTSD (b) other psychiatric diagnoses; (2) any moderation by MFFA is explained by experiences of interpersonal violence, cumulative trauma exposure or other psychopathology.

Methods

We conducted a population study of 3995 twins and 2019 singletons residing in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Participants completed the composite international diagnostic interview, including nine traumatic exposures and a questionnaire on MFFA.

Results

In total, 23.4% of participants reported exposure to MFFA. We found that (1) MFFA moderates the association between trauma exposure and both (a) PTSD and (b) non-PTSD diagnosis. (2) This was not explained by interpersonal violence, cumulative trauma exposure or other psychopathology.

Conclusions

In our sample MFFA moderates the association between trauma and PTSD, and the association between trauma and non-PTSD psychopathology.

Type
e-Poster walk: Epidemiology and social psychiatry; intellectual disability
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2017

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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