Does Acute Stress Disorder Predict Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Bank Robbery?

Unfortunately, the number of bank robberies is increasing and little is known about the subsequent risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Several studies have investigated the prediction of PTSD through the presence of acute stress disorder (ASD). However, there have only been a few studies following nonsexual assault. The present study investigated the predictive power of different aspects of the ASD diagnosis and symptom severity on PTSD prevalence and symptom severity in 132 bank employees. The PTSD diagnosis, based on the three core symptom clusters, was best identified using cutoff scores on the Acute Stress Disorder scale. ASD severity accounted for 40% and the inclusion of other risk factors accounted for 50% of the PTSD severity variance. In conclusion, results indicated that ASD appears to predict PTSD differently following nonsexual assault than other trauma types. ASD severity was a stronger predictor of PTSD than ASD diagnosis.