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This paper reports a relationship between subjective appraisal of
threat to life and the onset of PTSD symptoms in children involved in car
accidents. Was there a relationship between severity of the accident
and/or injuries and subjective appraisals of threat to life?
The capacity
to formulate an appraisal would depend largely on the ability to perceive
an impending collision, so did you take into account distraction or
inattention in those people who did not develop PTSD?
Without any
perception of an impending incident, but just the immediate physical
impact, there would be no content for appraisal, unless their appraisal
involves cognition after the impact. In this vien, it would be
interesting to know the percentage of accident victims who have
recollections about the events leading up to the accident vs the events
just after the accident.
Stallard et al raise "blow to the head" as a factor, presumably as
etiology possibly competing with the "psychological" -- but the numbers
reject that organic alternative. Evidence of non-cranial whiplash injury
was not addressed, at least in the article. Judging from adult
experience, children's road traffic injuries would seem much more likely
to involve whiplash than would the "control" childhood sports injuries?
Whiplash would of course raise the question of subtle (occult) organic
injury (to the lower brain as well as the neighboring cervical spine area)
as competition for the presumed purely psychological injury. And, since
the child whiplash victim is likely to be free (much more, at least, than
the adult?) from either the "malingering" or "compensation neurosis"
confounders, PTSD in the child auto victim might give support to the
organic genuineness of "psychological" adult whiplash sequelae?
Diagnosis
This paper reports a relationship between subjective appraisal of
threat to life and the onset of PTSD symptoms in children involved in car
accidents. Was there a relationship between severity of the accident
and/or injuries and subjective appraisals of threat to life?
The capacity
to formulate an appraisal would depend largely on the ability to perceive
an impending collision, so did you take into account distraction or
inattention in those people who did not develop PTSD?
Without any
perception of an impending incident, but just the immediate physical
impact, there would be no content for appraisal, unless their appraisal
involves cognition after the impact. In this vien, it would be
interesting to know the percentage of accident victims who have
recollections about the events leading up to the accident vs the events
just after the accident.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests