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65th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

11 - 14 May 2014, Dresden

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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms in elective spine surgery. A misattributed disorder?

Meeting Abstract

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  • Ehab Shiban - Neurochirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München
  • Youssef Shiban - Lehrstuhl für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Regensburg
  • Paul Pauli - Lehrstuhl für Psychologie I, Biologische Psychologie, Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Würzburg
  • Jens Lehmberg - Neurochirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München
  • Andreas Mühlberger - Lehrstuhl für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Regensburg
  • Bernhard Meyer - Neurochirurgische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 65. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC). Dresden, 11.-14.05.2014. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. DocP 128

doi: 10.3205/14dgnc524, urn:nbn:de:0183-14dgnc5249

Published: May 13, 2014

© 2014 Shiban et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: To assess the incidence of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in patients undergoing elective spine surgery.

Method: A prospective cohort study of 91 patients undergoing elective spinal surgery was examined. The incidence of development of PTSD symptoms was evaluated using a structured clinical interview (SCID) and a battery of standardized questionnaires (STAI-S, STAI-T, ASI-3, PTSS-10, ADS-K, BSSS). The evaluation took place before surgery as well as 1 week, 1 month and 3 months postoperatively. Short form SF36, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and EuroQOL-3D were also completed preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively.

Results: 56 patients were male (61%); mean age was 55,3 years (range 21–87 years). Most patients were married (68%). 25 patients (27%) had previous psychological treatment. PTSD symptoms were reported in 13 cases (14%) prior to surgery. At 1 and 3 months follow-up 8 and 6 patients (6%) still had PTSD symptoms, respectively.

Conclusions: Our results reveal that the genesis of PTSD symptoms is more likely to be related to preoperative incidents and not as currently believed to the operative procedure per se. Further research is needed in order to determine the relevant incident triggering the PTSD symptoms. Psychological support is necessary for patients suffering from PTSD symptoms as we could observe a stabilisation of the symptoms at 3 months follow-up.

Note: Ehab Shiban and Youssef Shiban contributed equally.