Requiring both avoidance and emotional numbing in DSM-V PTSD: Will it help?

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The proposed DSM-V criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) specifically require both active avoidance and emotional numbing symptoms for a diagnosis. In DSM-IV, since both are included in the same cluster, active avoidance is not essential. Numbing symptoms overlap with depression, which may result in spurious comorbidity or overdiagnosis of PTSD. This paper investigated the impact of requiring both active avoidance and emotional numbing on the rates of PTSD diagnosis and comorbidity with depression. METHOD: We investigated PTSD and depression in 835 traumatic injury survivors at 3 and 12 months post-injury. We used the DSM-IV criteria but explored the potential impact o..