Racial discrimination increases the risk for nonremitting posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in traumatically injured Black individuals living in the United States.

ABSTRACT

Traumatic, life-threatening events are experienced commonly among the general U.S. population, yet Black individuals in the United States (i.e., Black Americans) exhibit higher prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and more severe symptoms than other populations. Although empirical research has noted a range of symptom patterns that follow traumatic injury, minimal work has examined the role of racial discrimination in relation to PTSD symptom trajectories. The current study assessed racial discrimination and PTSD symptom trajectories at 6 months postinjury across two separate samples of traumatically injured Black Americans (i.e. emergency department (ED)-discharged and hospitalized). Identified PTSD symptom trajectories largely reflect those previously reported (i.e., ED nonremitting, moderate, remitting, and resilient; hospitalized nonremitting, delayed, and resilient), although the resilient trajectory was less represented than expected given past research (ED 55.8%, n = 62; hospitalized 46.9%, n = 38). Finally, higher racial discrimination was associated with nonremitting, ED relative risk ratio (RR) = 1.32, hospitalized RR = 1.23; moderate, ED RR = 1.18; and delayed, hospitalized RR = 1.26, PTSD symptom trajectories. Overall, the current findings not only emphasize the inimical effects of racial discrimination but also demonstrate the unique ways in which race-related negative events can impact PTSD symptom levels and recovery across time.