Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation among Canadian Forces Personnel in a National Canadian Military Health Survey

Authors

Charles Nelson, St. Joseph’s Health Care London, London, ON
Kate St. Cyr, St. Joseph’s Health Care London, London, ON
Bradley Corbett, The University of Western Ontario
Elisa Hurley, Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, Boston, MA
Shannon Gifford, St. Joseph’s Health Care London, London, ON
Jon D. Elhaid, University of Toledo
J. Donald Richardson, St. Joseph’s Health Care London, London, ON

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2011

Volume

45

Issue

11

Journal

Journal of Psychiatric Research

First Page

1483

URL with Digital Object Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.06.014

Last Page

1488

Abstract

Despite efforts to elucidate the relationship between traumatic event exposure and adverse mental health outcomes, our ability to understand why only some trauma-exposed individuals become emotionally affected remains challenged. The aim of the current study is to determine the relations between social support, religiosity, and number of lifetime traumatic events experienced on past-12 month posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and suicidal ideation (SI) in a nationally representative sample of Canadian Forces personnel. The current study used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2 – Canadian Forces Supplement. The impact of a number of predictive and mediating factors was assessed using structural equation modeling. Social support and number of lifetime traumatic events experienced were significant predictors of past-year PTSD, depression, and SI; however PTSD did not mediate the relationship between number of traumatic events and SI nor between social support and SI. Conversely, depression mediated the relationship between number of traumatic events and SI. Possible mechanisms for these findings and their implications are discussed.