[Psychotrauma and post-traumatic stress symptoms in the psychiatric elderly].

Introduction: This study concerns post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in psychiatric elderly living in a nursing home. PTSD in the elderly is underexposed and this group of elderly patients has not been investigated before. PTSD often comes with severe psychiatric problems, can affect, or even explain misunderstood problematic behaviour. The current trend is that psychiatric problems are more and more reason for admission to a nursing home. We examine the extent to which traumatic experiences and PTSD are present in this population, and to what extent elderly care physicians recognize traumatic experiences and PTSD.

Method: To screen for psychotrauma and PTSD, the Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ) was completed by participants. The assessment of elderly care physicians regarding psychotrauma and PTSD was objectified by means of two questions.

Population: All 52 gerontopsychiatric patients could be included. Sixteen of them did not participate in the TSQ.

Conclusions: The prevalence of traumatic experiences in this group is very high. They are partly missed by the elderly care physicians. Utilization of the TSQ and questions exploring possible avoidance of traumatic memories could reduce the risk of underdiagnosis of psychotrauma and PTSD.