To Treat or to Prevent?: Reducing the Population Burden of Violence-related Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains a prevalent and disabling psychiatric disorder in urban areas. However, the most effective allocation of resources into prevention and treatment to reduce this problem is unknown. We contrasted the impact of two interventions on violence-related PTSD: (1) a population-level intervention intended to prevent violence (i.e., hot-spot policing), and (2) an individual-level intervention intended to shorten PTSD duration (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy-CBT).

Methods

We used agent-based modeling to simulate violence and PTSD in New York City under four scenarios: (1) no intervention, (2) targeted policing to hot spots of violence, (3) increased access to CBT for people who suffered from violence-related P

SUBMITTER: Cerda M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4827920 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature