Comorbidity of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Comparison of Offender and Non-Offender Patients
Comorbidity of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Comparison of Offender and Non-Offender Patients
Comorbidity of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Paranoid Schizophrenia: A Comparison of Offender and Non-Offender Patients
Abstract
This study describes rates of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in
forensic and non-forensic psychiatric patients, with a primary diagnosis of paranoid
schizophrenia. Twenty-seven disordered offender patients (forensic) were compared
with 28 non-offender (general) psychiatric inpatients. Ninety-three percent of the
entire group reported previous trauma, with the forensic group reporting higher
rates of physical and sexual abuse. The forensic patients had also experienced more
multiple traumas then the general psychiatric patients, although the result was non-
significant. There was no difference between the groups with regard to the age of the
earliest trauma experienced. PTSD was common, with rates of 27% for current, and
40% lifetime diagnosis in the whole group. Forensic patients had higher rates of
both current (33% v 21%) and lifetime (52% v 29%) PTSD. Very few patients had
received a working diagnosis of PTSD, or were receiving trauma focussed
psychological therapy. Possible reasons for high rates of trauma and PTSD, and
implications for treatment are discussed.
Introduction
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder which may
be precipitated by exposure to a serious or life-threatening event.
Symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder include re-experiencing of
the traumatic event, avoidance, and hyperarousal, which are associated with
impairment in the individual’s social, interpersonal, or other important
areas of functioning (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
Correspondence: Gillian Mezey St. George’s Hospital Medical School, Department of Mental Health
(Forensic), Jenner Wing, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 ORE, UK. E-mail: gmezey@sgul.ac.uk
Aims
This study aimed to compare a group of forensic patients with a primary
diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia with a control group of non-forensic
patients with schizophrenia. We hypothesised that, compared to the general
psychiatric patients, forensic patients would have:
Method
Subjects
Between January 2002 and July 2003, male forensic psychiatric inpatients
with a primary diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia were opportunistically
recruited to the study from a medium secure unit in south London. They
were then matched according to age band and ethnicity with patients with
schizophrenia on general psychiatric wards. Exclusion criteria were:
inability to communicate in English, organic brain disease, learning
disability, severe affective disorder, or being considered too unwell to be
interviewed. Patients were interviewed by JS, OO, and AC after giving
informed consent.
Data collection
All subjects were interviewed, their case notes were scrutinised, and the
following information was collected: socio-demographic details, years of
education, and legal status (e.g., if voluntary or detained under the
Mental Health Act). All patients were also administered the following rating
scales:
Results
An opportunistic sample of 55 patients, 27 from a medium secure unit and
28 from general psychiatric wards, participated in the study (Table I).
There was no significant difference between the two groups on the
following socio-demographic variables: age, ethnic minority group, employ-
ment in previous three years, and length of education. With respect to
Forensic General
(n ¼ 27) % (n ¼ 28) % p value
Sociodemographic details
Age 33 38 .149
Ethnic minority status 62 48 .328
Unemployed in past 3 years 69 92 .075
Education in years .494
Psychiatric details
Voluntary status 12 54 5.001
Co-morbid clinical diagnoses
Personality disorder 15 0 .051
Substance abuse 27 22 .691
Drug induced psychosis 15 0 .051
History of treatment for PTSD 19 0 .023
Forensic history
Self-reported violence against the person 88 50 .004
Self-reported violence to property 62 46 .266
Convictions
Violent offences 70 15 5.001
Sexual offences 8 0 .111
Property offences 39 4 .111
664 J. Sarkar et al.
self-reported violence, the forensic group was significantly more likely to
report having been violent as an adult (88% vs 50%, p ¼ .004), although the
difference in terms of property offences was insignificant (62% vs 46%).
The forensic patients were significantly more likely than general psychiatric
patients to have convictions for violent offences (77% vs 11%, p 5 .001)
and for property (12% vs 0%) and sexual offences (12% vs 0%), although
statistics could not be validly employed in the latter two cases.
All the patients had a primary psychiatric diagnosis of schizophrenia. The
forensic group was significantly more likely to be compulsorily detained
under the 1983 Mental Health Act (88% vs 46%, p 5 .001). With regard
to co-morbidity, only the clinical diagnoses of personality disorder and
drug-induced psychosis were exclusively found in the forensic group.
However, only one patient (in the general psychiatric group) met the
criteria for a personality disorder, as assessed by the PDQ-4.
Trauma history
In all, 51 (93%) patients reported a history of trauma on the THQ, most
commonly for both groups in the category of general disaster/trauma (93%
forensic vs 71% general), followed by crime-related events (71% forensic vs
57% general). The next most common trauma was physical and sexual
experiences (44% forensic vs 25% general) for the forensic group and the
‘other’ category for the non-forensic group. Although there was no
significant difference between the groups on any trauma category, a larger
proportion of forensic compared to general patients experienced traumas of
all types (see Table II).
A total of 31 (60%) patients had experienced multiple types of traumatic
events; 19 (61%) in the forensic and 12 (39%) in the general group.
Forensic patients ( x ¼ 12, SD ¼ 11.1) reported a significantly higher
number of trauma incidents (repeated exposure) than the general group
(x ¼ 6, SD ¼ 6.6; t ¼ 2.31, df ¼ 52, p ¼ .025, 95% CI ¼ .746, 10.736). This
difference was mainly accounted for by an excess of physical and sexual
abuse in the forensic group (x ¼ 3) compared to the general group (x ¼ 0.4;
t ¼ 2.61, df ¼ 53, p 5 .12, 95% CI ¼ .549, 4.218). See Table III.
PTSD diagnosis
There were 15 patients (27%) who met the criteria for current PTSD and
22 (40%) for lifetime PTSD according to the PSS-I. The prevalence of
current PTSD was 33% for the forensic and 21% for the general group.
The prevalence of lifetime PTSD was 52% and 29% respectively. There
was no significant difference between the groups. Patients were significantly
more likely to meet the criteria for a lifetime diagnosis of PTSD if they had
experienced multiple traumas than if they reported a single traumatic event.
(w2 ¼ 7.8, df ¼ 1, p 5 .005).
In terms of self-reported PTSD symptoms, the only significant difference
was found in lifetime re-experiencing symptoms in the forensic group (85%
vs 54%, p ¼ .011), although there was a trend towards the forensic patients
reporting more PTSD symptoms than the general group in all categories.
There was also no significant difference between the groups in terms of
severity of symptoms, although forensic patients were more likely to report
more severe hyperarousal symptoms than general patients. On average,
forensic patients reported more severe symptoms both over the previous
month (2 – 4 times/week vs once/week or less by general patients) and
lifetime (5 or more times/week vs 2 – 4 times/week) compared with general
patients.
Discussion
This is the first UK study to examine the prevalence of PTSD in psychiatric
inpatients with a primary diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Earlier
666 J. Sarkar et al.
reports have either been case studies (Harry & Resnick, 1986; Kruppa,
1991; Rogers, Gray, Williams, & Kitchiner, 2000) or patients with multiple
diagnoses (Gray et al., 2003; Papanastassiou et al., 2004).
Limitations of the study include the opportunistic selection of patients
from the secure unit and hospital wards and the small sample size. In
addition, the identification of trauma, although carried out using a
standardised measure, nevertheless relied on the patient’s accurate retro-
spective recall, as did the recording of post traumatic stress symptoms.
However, we found no evidence that patients were fabricating or
exaggerating their experiences, but rather the opposite, in that a number
of patients reported that this was the first time they had been asked, or been
willing to admit to certain past traumatic experiences.
Lack of identification
No patient had received a diagnosis of PTSD, suggesting under-recognition
of the extent of trauma and trauma-related psychiatric illness (MacFarlane
et al., 2001; Mueser et al., 1998). This under-recognition may be due to a
tendency to adopt a hierarchical approach to diagnosing mental disorders.
The diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia may lead to premature diagnostic
closure (Lundy, 1992), whereby either the psychotic disorder effectively
trumps the diagnosis of PTSD or leads to symptoms of PTSD being
overlooked altogether. Identification of the disorder is important in that
failure to diagnose and treat co-morbid PTSD in patients with psychotic
illness may result in more severe illness presentation (MacFarlane et al.,
2001), poorer response to conventional treatment (Hamner, 1996), and a
worse prognosis (Mueser & Butler, 1987).
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