RESUMO
Developmental trauma disorder (DTD) in children and adolescents - results from a patient population at the special consultation hour for traumatized children and adolescents Abstract. Objective: Children and adolescents who have experienced interpersonal Type-II-trauma often develop symptoms going far beyond the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Van der Kolk (2009) suggested the Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) to define the extensive symptomatology; however, research on DTD is limited. Method: Frequency and group differences of DTD were examined based on physicians' letters of n = 161 patients between one and 18 years (61 % female) from an out-patient unit for traumatized patients at a paediatric and adolescent psychiatry. Physicians' letters were rated and analysed using an adapted DTD algorithm. Results: In total, 77 % of the patients experienced interpersonal Type-II-trauma, 6 % met the criteria for the adapted DTD diagnosis. DTD criteria were found more frequently in interpersonal Type-II-trauma victims than in patients with accidental or Type-I-trauma, but group differences only reached statistical significance for the DTD criteria B (affective and physiological dysregulation) and G (impairments) at the adjusted 0,2 % significance level. No statistically significant differences for age or gender were found. The posttraumatic symptoms of children younger than seven years were analysed descriptively. Conclusions: The results show that, although many children and adolescents have developed symptoms beyond the PTSD, only a small proportion have met the DTD diagnosis. In view of the partially unspecific and contradictory findings, further studies on DTD considering larger samples, the complete DTD criteria, and diagnosis-specific instruments seem to be reasonable and necessary.