Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Jun 22, 2016; 6(2): 226-232
Published online Jun 22, 2016. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v6.i2.226
Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire - Observer Rated: Validation of the objective version of a measure for combat-related peritraumatic stress
Agorastos Agorastos, Abigail C Angkaw, Heather E Johnson, Christian J Hansen, Camille V Cook, Dewleen G Baker
Agorastos Agorastos, Abigail C Angkaw, Dewleen G Baker, Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), San Diego, CA 92161, United States
Agorastos Agorastos, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, D-20246 Hamburg, Germany
Abigail C Angkaw, Camille V Cook, Dewleen G Baker, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), San Diego, CA 92161, United States
Heather E Johnson, Dewleen G Baker, Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161, United States
Christian J Hansen, Veterans Medical Research Foundation, San Diego, CA 92161, United States
Author contributions: Agorastos A wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Hansen CJ and Cook CV carried out all statistical analyses; Johnson HE made substantial contributions to acquisition of data; Agorastos A, Angkaw AC and Baker DG contributed to the interpretation of data; Baker DG made substantial contributions to the design and implementation; Angkaw AC, Johnson HE and Baker DG were involved in drafting the manuscript and revising it critically for important intellectual content; all authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs small (pilot) project mechanism, No. Contract W81XWH-10-1-0693 (to Baker DG); It was linked to the MRS study, funded by VA’s Health Services Research and Development Service, No. RDIS 0024; the Marine Corps and Navy BUMED, from which pre- and post-deployment data were drawn.
Institutional review board statement: The “Validation of the Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire” study and the MRS study were both IRB and VA research committee reviewed and approved.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial competing interests. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or policies of the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dewleen G Baker, MD, Professor, Research Director of Veteran Affairs Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), 3350 La Jolla Village Dr., San Diego, CA 92161, United States. dgbaker@ucsd.edu
Telephone: +1-858-552858-2230 Fax: +1-858-6486448
Received: January 15, 2016
Peer-review started: January 19, 2016
First decision: March 23, 2016
Revised: May 9, 2016
Accepted: May 17, 2016
Article in press: May 27, 2016
Published online: June 22, 2016
Processing time: 156 Days and 5.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The assessment of combat-related peritraumatic symptoms mainly relies on retrospective, subjective self-report ratings. We have therefore developed the Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire - Observer Rated (PBQ-OR), a third-person-rated scale for unit-embedded medical personnel to objectively assess symptoms of combat-related peritraumatic stress in deployed troops. In this study, we validated the PBQ-OR during active deployment and longitudinally evaluated its psychometric properties and war-zone applicability. Our findings show that the PBQ-OR could be used as a screening and monitoring tool in real time and may permit earlier detection of Service Members at risk for posttraumatic stress symptoms to target prevention and early intervention efforts.