The impact of PTSD and associated factors of anxiety severity, and child abuse on treatment rejection within a corrections population

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of PTSD and associated factors of anxiety severity and child abuse trauma type on the prediction of treatment rejection among incarcerated individuals. Several demographic factors were found to be related to lower rates of treatment rejection: younger age and lower education level. In addition, females reported higher rates of child sexual abuse than men. Overall, 90% of females and 69.6% of men reported some form of abuse as a child. A negative correlation was found between PTSD and treatment rejection such that the greater the PTSD symptoms, the less likely the individual was to reject treatment. In addition, the more severe the symptoms of anxiety the less likely the participants were to endorse treatment rejection. Neither the history of nor the absence of child abuse was found to have an impact on treatment rejection.