The Impact of Emotional Characteristics in the Chronicity of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

BACKGROUND The research objective was to identify overstated emotional characteristics in armed conflict veterans as well as both the similarities and differences in personality profiles between patients suffering from acute and chronic forms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). SUBJECTS AND METHODS Our study's sample consisted of 60 participants in the armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February, 1998 until 11 June, 1999. All of them were diagnosed with PTSD, during the six months period after their return from active duty. In 2014 we retested the same subjects to see their current psychological state. Diagnoses of PTSD were made using Structure Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), while the assessment of emotional characteristics was made using Plutchik's emotion profile index (PIE). RESULTS We established no statistically significant difference in PIE profiles between both groups in recent re-testing. The only significant difference as per PIE classification was found earlier when the subjects were initially diagnosed. The amplified emotional dimension was exploration, and only the group of chronic PTSD patients displayed significantly higher values (p<0.05). CONCLUSION Emotional profiles, as a whole, proved to be very similar amongst subjects with both acute and chronic form of the PTSD. The only noted difference is in the significantly higher values of exploration emotional dimension, but only at the time when they were first given initial diagnosis, and only in the group of subjects who later developed the chronic form of PTSD which can indicate that exploration is a factor of vulnerability which is important in chronicity.