Personality predictors of injury-related posttraumatic stress disorder

This longitudinal, cohort study examined the effect of personality traits o n the emergence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a recently traum atized, civilian, mixed-gender sample with significant injuries. Burn survi vors (N = 70) were administered the NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM III-R (SCID) at hospital discharg e and readministered the SCID 4 and 12 months later. Overall, the sample of burn survivors scored significantly higher on neuroticism and extraversion and lower on openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness relative to a normative national sample. Furthermore, multivariate analysis of variance r evealed that PTSD symptom severity groups (i.e., single symptom, multiple s ymptoms, subthreshold PTSD, PTSD) were differentially related to neuroticis m and extraversion. Planned comparisons indicated that neuroticism was high er and extraversion was lower in those who developed PTSD compared with tho se who did not develop PTSD.