Acute physical injury may lead to psychological distress. The relationship between peritraumatic responses, injury severity, the personality trait of optimism/pessimism and psychological distress is not fully understood. In addition, the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms may differ in subgroups.
One hundred and eighty-one patients (18-65 years) completed questionnaires 1 (baseline), 3 and 12 months after first admission for acute physical injury. All patients were conscious on arrival. Scores on the Casualty Chain Inventory (CCI) for peritraumatic responses, the Impact of Event Scale (IES), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), trauma-related variables (ISS, Abbreviated Injury Scale [AIS], Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS]), and background variables were assessed.
Mean IES scores were 21.5 (95% CI: 19.0-24.0) at baseline and 15.8 (13.5-18.1) at 12 months (p