Utilization of Mental Health Provision, Epistemic Stance and Comorbid Psychopathology of Individuals with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (CPTSD)—Results from a Representative German Observational Study

TL;DR

This study finds that people with complex PTSD in Germany often seek mental health treatment but report lower improvement, possibly due to lower trust in knowledge sources.

Contribution

The study provides novel insights into mental health treatment patterns and outcomes specific to individuals with CPTSD in a representative German population.

Findings

Individuals with CPTSD had higher treatment uptake but lower symptom improvement compared to PTSD and depression.

Lower epistemic trust was strongly associated with higher CPTSD symptoms.

CPTSD was linked to multiple comorbidities and functional impairments.

Abstract

Background: Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is a severely debilitating recently added symptom cluster in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). So far, only limited information on mental health treatment-uptake and -satisfaction of individuals with CPTSD is available. The aim of this study is to investigate these aspects in a representative sample of the German general population. Methods: Participants completed the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) to identify participants with CPTSD, as well as questionnaires on mental health treatment uptake and satisfaction, adverse childhood experiences, anxiety, depression, working ability, personality functioning, and epistemic trust. Results: Of the included n = 1918 participants, n = 29 (1.5%) fulfilled the criteria for CPTSD. Participants with CPTSD had received mental health treatment significantly more often than participants with PTSD or depression (65.5% vs. 58.8% vs. 31.6%; p = 0.031) but reported significantly less symptom improvement (52.9% vs. 78.0% vs. 80.0%; p = 0.008). Lower levels of epistemic trust were associated with higher CPTSD symptoms (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study shows that while the vast majority of individuals with CPTSD had received mental health treatment, subjective symptom improvement rates are not satisfactory. CPTSD was associated with a broad number of comorbidities and impairments in functioning. Lower levels of epistemic trust may partially explain worse treatment outcomes.

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