The sex-specific associations between suicidality and post-traumatic stress disorder in patients with physical injuries

Understanding how early suicidality might signal the onset of PTSD is crucial for timely interventions.3 Current research often focuses on single-time PTSD assessments, conducted from 1 month to 2 years after trauma, missing the potential variability in PTSD symptoms over time.4 There is a lack of detailed study on how the link between PTSD and suicidality evolves, particularly considering the role of sex differences. Initial assessments were carried out within a month of hospital admission, including comprehensive psychiatric evaluations, sociodemographic data collection such as sex, clinical profile analysis and a detailed assessment of suicidality. To establish a diagnosis, participants had to meet specific criteria across several symptom clusters: a minimum of one symptom from cluster B, one from cluster C, two from cluster D and one from cluster E, alongside fulfilling the requirements of clusters F and G. Recognised for its high reliability and validity, CAPS-5, even when administered via telephone, offers a robust framework for PTSD evaluation.10 The study defined the outcome variables as the presence of PTSD at each follow-up interval and the occurrence of any PTSD diagnosed at least once during the follow-up period. Of the 1142 patients who met the eligibility criteria and agreed to participate, 95 (8.3%) discontinued participation before the 3-month evaluation, resulting in 1047 patients (91.7%) for the final analysis.