Beyond the neglect of psychological consequences: post-traumatic stress disorder increases the non-fatal burden of injury by more than 50%

Background Psychological consequences such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are currently neglected in burden-of-injury calculations. Aim To assess the disease burden of PTSD due to unintentional injury and compare this health loss with physical injury consequences. Methods From literature sources, the prevalence of PTSD at four follow-up periods (< 3 months, 3-6 months, 7-12 months and >12 months) was estimated. The uncertainty of the estimated PTSD prevalence was modelled by a Bayesian approach. The prevalence rates were then linked to national data on unintentional injury, disability weights and duration to estimate the incidence and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) resulting from PTSD in addition to physical injury consequences. Results The data suggest that PTSD prevalence among injury victims decreases over time. The average PTSD prevalence at