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Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire

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Comprehensive Guide to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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Abstract

The postwar fiscal burden for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTSD-related mental, physical, and social outcomes can be high, and the liability can persist for decades post-armistice. Thus, any advancement in early detection and prevention of PTSD promise substantial benefits. There is strong confirmation that peritraumatic stress reactions are robust posttrauma predictors of PTSD development. This fact provides evidence to warrant training for the recognition and evaluation of peritraumatic stress. However, although instruments for measuring peritraumatic symptoms exist, they were not specifically developed to assess combat-related peritraumatic reactions and may insufficiently capture the wide range of possible reactions in the immediate aftermath of a combat-related trauma. In addition, these measures also all rely on subjective, retrospective self-report. To redress this problem, we developed the Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ). The ultimate goal was to generate a military-specific observer-rating scale for corpsman and medics in theater to facilitate the early detection of combat-related peritraumatic distress symptoms in actively deployed service members and to unify underlying peritraumatic symptom dimensions to reliably assess combat-related peritraumatic reactions as a general construct. Before assessing an observer-rated version of the PBQ (PBQ – Observer Rated, PBQ-OR), we initially investigated the psychometric and predictive properties of the self-rated PBQ version (PBQ – Self Report, PBQ-SR). We considered that the establishment of good psychometric properties for the SR version would be important before introducing the additional complexities of observer ratings. Here we report the development of the PBQ and summarize the recently reported psychometric properties of the PBQ-SR, as well as our findings and conclusions from the in-theater evaluation procedure of the PBQ-OR. Our data confirm the ability of the PBQ to unify the underlying peritraumatic symptom dimensions and reliably assess combat-related peritraumatic reactions as a general construct. Both PBQ-SR and PBQ-OR showed high correlation to various PTSD-specific as well as PTSD-related symptoms and demonstrated promise as a potential standard screening measure in military clinical practice.

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Abbreviations

CAPS:

Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale

EDS:

Emotional Distress Subscale

PAS:

Physical Awareness Subscale

PBQ:

Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire

PBQ-OR:

PBQ – Observer Rated

PBQ-SR:

PBQ – Self Report

PCL:

PTSD Checklist

PDEQ:

Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire

PDI:

Peritraumatic Distress Inventory

PTSD:

Posttraumatic stress disorder

UMP:

Unit medical personnel

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martini Str. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Agorastos Agorastos

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, 92093, USA

    Abigail C. Angkaw, Camille V. Cook & Dewleen G. Baker

  3. Department of Psychology & Veterans Affairs, Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, VA San Diego Healthcare System, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr., San Diego, CA, 92161, USA

    Abigail C. Angkaw, Heather E. Johnson & Dewleen G. Baker

  4. Veterans Medical Research Foundation, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr. (151A), Building 13, San Diego, CA, 92161, USA

    Christian J. Hansen

Authors
  1. Agorastos Agorastos
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  2. Abigail C. Angkaw
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  3. Heather E. Johnson
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  4. Christian J. Hansen
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  5. Camille V. Cook
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  6. Dewleen G. Baker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dewleen G. Baker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Buckinghamshire New University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, United Kingdom

    Colin R. Martin

  2. Kings College, London, United Kingdom

    Victor R. Preedy

  3. University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom

    Vinood B. Patel

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Agorastos, A., Angkaw, A.C., Johnson, H.E., Hansen, C.J., Cook, C.V., Baker, D.G. (2015). Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire. In: Martin, C., Preedy, V., Patel, V. (eds) Comprehensive Guide to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08613-2_102-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08613-2_102-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08613-2

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