Predictive factors of chronic post‐traumatic stress disorder 6 months after a road traffic accident

This study sets out to identify risk factors for post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a road traffic accident with a view to improving prevention. The study used a prospective cohort of road traffic accident casualties. All subjects over 15 years of age were recruited in the course of an interview conducted while they were receiving care in a hospital of the Rhône area administrative département. Six months after their accident, they answered a self‐administered postal questionnaire that included the Post‐traumatic Check‐List Scale (PCLS) in order to evaluate PTSD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to compare those subjects with a PCLS score of 44 or over with those with a lower score, in order to identify factors that might be associated with PTSD. 592 subjects (out of 1168) returned the 6‐month questionnaire and 541 completed the PCLS test. One hundred subjects had a PCLS score ≥44, suggesting PTSD, and 441 subjects did not. The factors associated with PTSD were initial injury severity, post‐traumatic amnesia, the feeling of not being responsible for their accident and persistent pain 6 months after it. A lower odds‐ratio was associated with users of two‐wheel than four‐wheel motor vehicles (OR=0.4; 0.2–0.9). Besides predictive factors for PTSD (injury severity, post‐traumatic amnesia and the feeling of not being responsible for their accident), our study suggested a reduced risk of PTSD among two‐wheel motor vehicle users.