Understanding PTSD Symptoms Over Time: Longitudinal Network Analysis

Trauma-exposed individuals have often been studied using network modeling, yet cross-sectional data limits the results. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms collected over a 5-year period were analyzed for more reliable between-subject and symptom change networks. Negative trauma-related emotions were found to have strong associations with the network, whereas sleep disturbance, trauma-related amnesia, and self-destructive behavior had weaker overall associations. The network structure of PTSD appears stable over time, and additional consideration should be given to the relevance of self-destructive behavior, sleep disturbance, and trauma-related amnesia to the disorder.