UNDERSTANDING COMORBIDITY BETWEEN PTSD AND SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS - 2 PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS

While there is high level of comorbidity of PTSD End substance use dis orders (SUDs), little research has focused on the overlapping symptom constellation characteristic of both PTSD and substance use/withdrawal . This report describes two preliminary investigations that address th is area. In the first study, the pattern of PTSD symptoms in a sample of women (n = 28) seeking treatment for a SUD and comorbid with PTSD w as compared with the symptom pattern of a sample of women (n = 28) wit h PTSD only. The PTSD + SUD group evidenced significantly more symptom s in the avoidance and arousal symptom clusters than the PTSD-only gro up. At the individual symptom level, the PTSD + SUD group reported sig nificantly more sleep disturbance than the PTSD-only group. It was als o determined that the PTSD + SUD group reported greater traumatic-even t exposure than the PTSD-only group. In the second study, PTSD symptom s were compared in a sample of alcohol-dependent and a sample of cocai ne-dependent individuals with PTSD. The alcohol-dependent group exhibi ted significantly more arousal symptoms than the cocaine-dependent gro up. Implications of the results for the assessment of individuals with comorbid PTSD and SUDs are discussed.