Developing high-quality interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder in the acute care medical setting

Abstract

The secondary prevention of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related comorbidities among injured trauma survivors constitutes an important public health problem. This article outlines quality-of-care criteria that are intended to guide intervention development for PTSD in the acute care medical setting. The multiple demographic, injury, and service delivery system factors that characterize the acute care setting's clinical heterogeneity are discussed. A model of intervention development that begins with population-based descriptive studies and small pilots of efficacious PTSD treatments and evolves to the development of larger-scale multifaceted collaborative interventions is introduced. Collaborative interventions hold promise for injured trauma survivors treated in acute care settings because they combine evidence-based PTSD interventions and patient-centered supportive care.