MIDAS Project Publication Abstracts
Franklin, C.L., Zimmerman, M. Posttraumatic stress disorder
and major depressive disorder: Investigating the role of overlapping
symptoms in diagnostic comorbidity. Journal of Nervous and
Mental Disease, 2001, 189, 548-551.
Studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have found high levels
of comorbid major depressive disorder (MDD). One reason suggested for the
comorbidity is the symptom overlap (contaminated symptoms) between the
disorders. The present study investigated the contribution of contaminated
symptoms (anhedonia, concentration and sleep problems) to the comorbidity
of PTSD and MDD. PTSD symptoms were subdivided into two groups: the
contaminated symptoms and the 14 "unique" symptoms. It was
speculated that if the contaminated symptoms are responsible for the
comorbidity, then they will show less specificity than the unique
symptoms, will be less highly correlated with a PTSD symptom total count,
and be more frequently endorsed in PTSD patients with than without MDD.
These hypotheses were tested in a sample (n = 1300) of psychiatric
outpatients, 260 of whom had lifetime PTSD. None of the hypotheses were
supported, thereby suggesting that the comorbidity between PTSD and MDD is
not an artifact of symptom overlap.
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