Wilson Brown, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, and other researchers at Case Western Reserve University recently reported new findings in Psychiatry Research clarifying how posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms interconnect with severe mental illnesses (SMI), such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
The work, titled “Modeling the symptom connections between posttraumatic stress disorder and comorbid severe mental illness,” highlights the value of network approaches for understanding complex symptom interactions and refining treatment targets in real-world clinical populations.
About the study
Using network analysis to map symptom-to-symptom relationships in a sample of 126 veterans receiving care in a PTSD specialty clinic, this study revealed that hyperarousal (e.g., heightened startle, irritability) is the central bridge linking PTSD with broader psychiatric symptoms. Avoidance also emerged as a key connector, particularly with negative symptoms, while activation and negative symptoms showed inverse relations. These results suggest that interventions targeting hyperarousal and avoidance may be especially impactful for individuals with comorbid PTSD and SMI.
