Patterns of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression Among Adolescents Following an Earthquake: a Latent Profile Analysis

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had been found to be comorbid with depression in victims following trauma. However, few studies have used latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine the comorbidity of PTSD and depression in adolescents exposed to natural disasters. Here, we used LPA to examine the comorbidity of PTSD and depression in 2059 adolescents who completed self-reported questionnaires 1.5 years after the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province, China. We found that the data were best fit by a four-class solution, including a depressive symptoms group (39.2%), a non-symptoms group (34.7%), a mild comorbidity symptoms group (20.7%), and a serious comorbidity symptoms group (5.4%). Compared with individuals in the non-symptoms group, those in the comorbidity symptoms groups were more likely to report lower levels of parental trust, a greater degree of parental communication, and greater alienation. Compared with individuals in the depressive symptoms group, those in the comorbidity symptoms groups were more likely to report parental alienation. These results indicate that PTSD and depression reflect independent posttraumatic responses rather than a single disorder structure. Further, parental attachment may be an important predictor for differentiating the distinct comorbid patterns of PTSD and depression.