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    Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Meaningful in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Response to Van Overmeire's Commentary on Karatzias et al. (2020)


    Shevlin, Mark, Hyland, Philip and Karatzias, Thanos (2020) Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Meaningful in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Response to Van Overmeire's Commentary on Karatzias et al. (2020). Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33. pp. 866-868. ISSN 0894-9867

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    Abstract

    In a recently published study in this journal that used a population-based sample in the Republic of Ireland (Karatzias et al., 2020), we concluded that 17.7% of the sample met the diagnostic requirements for COVID-19–related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Subsequently, Van Overmeire (2020) has raised concerns about the validity of our findings, arguing that simply experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic is not sufficient to meet the trauma exposure criterion for a PTSD diagnosis and, consequently, our estimated PTSD prevalence figure was inflated. In this response, we provide (a) an explanation for why the COVID-19 pandemic can be reasonably considered to be a traumatic event, (b) evidence that PTSD in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is a meaningful construct, and (c) an argument for why our estimated prevalence rate is not unreasonably high.
    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Cite as: Shevlin, M., Hyland, P. and Karatzias, T. (2020), Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Meaningful in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Response to Van Overmeire's Commentary on Karatzias et al. (2020). Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33: 866-868. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22592
    Keywords: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; COVID-19; Pandemic; Response; Van Overmeire's Commentary on Karatzias et al;
    Academic Unit: Assisting Living & Learning,ALL institute
    Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
    Item ID: 15132
    Identification Number: 10.1002/jts.22592
    Depositing User: Philip Hyland
    Date Deposited: 15 Dec 2021 15:14
    Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Traumatic Stress
    Publisher: Wiley
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/15132
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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