User:Nzaharevich

Introduction Mental health issues are a significant threat to the welfare of our soldiers currently in our military, since as many as 40 soldiers leave the combat theater of operations for mental complications each month (Tyson, 2006). Soldiers are coming home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) more now that ever. With a steady threat from terrorists, and soldiers rotating in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers with PTSD is becoming more prevalent, especially in those who have served in combat on multiple occasions. It was not until 1980s that PTSD received its own subsection under anxiety disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III, which gives PTSD a short history of study but has a revival for extensive research, which has been minimal since the Vietnam War. We have a new military conflict ongoing with military veterans returning home to society with untreated or undiagnosed PTSD. This anxiety disorder does not exist by itself; there are increasing amounts of people who have more than just PTSD, rather, PTSD with comorbid Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) or significant features of BPD. Numerous amount of research has been conducted to indicate that PTSD is related to BPD and possibly occur simultaneously. However, more research is needed on the features explaining why these two disorders are so heavily correlated. PTSD is classified as an anxiety disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV), and is characterized as having symptoms of, but not limited to; depression, anxiety, flashbacks, and recurrent nightmares following a traumatic event (APA, 2000 ; Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary, 2004 ). BPD is classified as a personality disorder which is shown through instability of a laundry list of items, but only a handful are required to meet the criteria to be classified as BPD (APA, 2000). Research has found that is a relation between personality traits and post-traumatic stress, but the purpose of this study is to examine some of the specific BPD features that relate to different levels of post-traumatic stress. Research on post-traumatic stress is very valuable to society through helping predict when post-traumatic stress will and will not be problematic for individuals as well as what types of factors may be particularly relevant to the prevention of post-traumatic stress. It is the nature of this experiment to discover any links (with PTSD and Traumatized Control subjects) between post-traumatic stress and features of BPD.

Method

This research used subjects who have served in the military and show varying signs of combat PTSD symptoms. Each of the subjects were surveyed for PTSD using one of the checklists created by Weather, Huska, & Keane; The PTSD Checklist – Military Version (PCL-M). Each of the PCL surveys is a 17-item questionnaire that asks either about a “past military experience,” and has the subject answer about the severity of the items on a rating scale in the past month. Alongside the PCL survey, there were four other scales used to measure different levels of the BPD features. The second survey was the Personality Assessment Inventory for Borderline Personality Disorder (PAI-BOR), which is a 31-item survey which measures affective instability, identity disturbances, negative relationships, self-harm, and a total score for a measure of BPD (Morey, 1991). The third survey was the Affective Lability Scales (ALS), which measures six dimensions of affective instability; labile anger labile depression, labile elation, labile anxiety, depression/elation oscillation, and depression/anxiety oscillation (Harvey, Greenberg, & Serper, 1989). Each subject answers this 54-item survey rating the questions from very characteristic of me to very uncharacteristic of me. The fourth survey was the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), which measured different levels of impulsivity in a 34-item questionnaire (Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995). Finally, the Urgency, Premeditation, Perseverance, and Sensation Seeking scale (UPPS), which also measures impulsivity, but its use in this experiment is for validity of impulsivity (Whiteside & Lynam, 1989).

Procedure

Through a period of one month, there were 53 participants who completed the battery of surveys administered via the internet through a survey company called Surveymonkey.com which allowed each participant to take the survey anonymously and at their convenience.

Results

A simple linear regression was calculated predicting participants' levels of PTSD based on their levels of BPD. A significant regression equation was found (F (1, 48) = 79.005, p < .001, with an R2 of .622. There was a significant association with BPD (ß = .794, SE = .144, p-value = .000) such that higher levels of BPD were associated with higher levels of PTSD.

A multiple linear regression was calculated to predict participants' levels of PTSD based on their levels of BPD features; affective instability (PAIAFFE), identity disturbances (PAIIDEN), negative relationships (PAINEGER), and self-harm (PAIHARM). A significant regression equation was found (F (4, 45) = 25.200, p < .001, with an R2 of .691. There was a significant association between affective instability (ß = 1.282, SE = .484, p = .011) and identity disturbances (ß = 1.974, SE = .584, p = .001) such that higher levels of instability and identity disturbances were associated with higher levels of PTSD.

Model Summary a. Predictors: (Constant), Slef-harm, Identity Disturbances, Affective Instability, Negative Relationships

ANOVAb a. Predictors: (Constant), Slef-harm, Identity, Affective Instability, Negative Relationships

b. Dependant Variable: PCLTot

Coeeficientsa a. Dependant Variable: PCLTot

oTables and figures

oStatistical presentation

oStatistical power

oStatistical significance

oEffect size and strength of relationship

Discussion

Working Bibliography

Unused References

Joseph, S., Trasher, T., Thrasher, S., & Yule, W. (1997). Impulsivity and post-traumatic stress. Personality and Individual Differences, 22 (2), 279-281.

Tragesser, S. L., Solhan, M., Schwartz-Mette, R., & Trull, T. J. (2007). The role of affective instability and impulsivity in predicting future BPD features. Journal of Personality Disorders, 21 (6), 603-614.