PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER RELATED TO MOTOR-VEHICLE ACCIDENTS - REPLICATION AND EXTENSION

Psychophysiological assessment data, including heart rate (HR), blood pressure, and frontal electromyogram (EMG) responses to mental arithme tic, idiosyncratic audiotape descriptions of motor vehicle accidents ( MVAs), and a standard videotape of MVAs, were collected on 105 injured victims of recent MVAs and 54 non-MVA controls. Their data replicated data from an earlier report (Blanchard et al., 1994) and support the utility of HR response to the audiotaped description of the MVA as use ful in distinguishing MVA victims with PTSD from those with subsyndrom al PTSD and non-PTSD. At a 1-year follow-up, the psychophysiological a ssessment was repeated on 125 MVA victims: results showed a general di minution of psychophysiological responding. Initial psychophysiologica l assessment results predicted 1-year follow-up clinical status (conti nued PTSD or full or partial remission) for 37 of 48 individuals who i nitially met criteria for PTSD.