%0 Journal Article
%T The Peritraumatic Behavior Questionnaire: Development and initial validation of a new measure for combat-related peritraumatic reactions
%A Agorastos Agorastos
%A William P Nash
%A Sarah Nunnink
%A Kate A Yurgil
%A Abigail Goldsmith
%A Brett T Litz
%A Heather Johnson
%A James B Lohr
%A Dewleen G Baker
%J BMC Psychiatry
%D 2013
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-244x-13-9
%X 688 Marine infantry service members were retrospectively assessed by the PBQ-SR within the scope of the Marine Resiliency Study after their deployment to war zone. Participants have been additionally assessed by a variety of questionnaires, as well as clinical interviews both pre and post-deployment.The PBQ-SR demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity, as well as high correlation with trait dissociation prior to deployment. Component analysis suggested a latent bi-dimensional structure separating a peritraumatic emotional distress and physical awareness factor. The PBQ-SR total score showed high correlation to general anxiety, depression, poorer general health and posttraumatic symptoms after deployment and remained a significant predictor of PTSD severity, after controlling for those measures. The suggested screening cut-off score of 12 points demonstrated satisfactory predictive power.This study confirms the ability of the PBQ-SR to unify the underlying peritraumatic symptom dimensions and reliably assess combat-related peritraumatic reaction as a general construct. The PBQ-SR demonstrated promise as a potential standard screening measure in military clinical practice, while It's predictive power should be established in prospective studies.
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/13/9/abstract