Coping and Defending Styles among Vietnam Combat Veterans Seeking Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Use Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder in substance abuse patients: Relationship to 1-year posttreatment outcomes.

“…Specifically, a lack of effective coping skills, as well as specific beliefs about substance use, has been shown to predict the onset and maintenance of substance use (Donovan, 1995). Similar characteristics have been associated with PTSD and PTSD-substance use (e.g., Abueg et al, 1990;Penk, Peck, Robinowitz, Bell, & Little, 1988). Thus, risk factors were proposed to be intensified in SA-PTSD patients relative to SA-only patients and to mediate the association between PTSD and poorer outcomes.…”

Clinical assessment of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among American minorities who served in Vietnam

“…The hypothesis that, among Vietnam combat veterans seeking treatment for substance abuse, blacks evidence greater disturbance than do whites was evaluated further by comparing retrospective ratings of family social climates (Penk et al 1988). The purpose of this study was to determine whether premilitary adjustment (as measured by retrospective ratings of family of origin adjustment) might be implicated in postmilitary adjustment Black and white groups did not differ appreciably on either ratings of past family-of-origin or current family-of-procreation ratings.…”

Molecular and genetic substrates linking stress and addiction

“…For example, abuse rates in combat veterans suffering from PTSD are significantly higher than those veterans without the disorder and stress-induced relapse is higher in these individuals following abstinence (Donovan et al, 2001; McFall et al, 1992; Ouimette et al, 2007; Penk et al, 1988; Zaslav, 1994). Additionally, sexual abuse, as well as other childhood trauma, has been shown to increase vulnerability to addiction (DeWit et al, 1999; Teusch, 2001; Triffleman et al, 1995; Walker et al, 1998).…”