PTSD, Depression and Anxiety Comorbidity Among Adolescents Living in Neema and Tumaini Children Homes.

Abstract

Previous studies on Post Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) in adolescents have indicated that PTSD is co-morbid with other mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that may develop following an individual’s experiences or even witness of traumatic experiences where the natural ability of “fight or flight” responses are damaged or altered. The purpose of this study was to identify co-morbidities of PTSD among adolescents. The target population of the study was Neema and Tumaini children homes at Nyandarua County, Kenya. Quasi –experimental research design was adopted for this study with a target of 402 adolescents living in the children’s home. A sample size of 160 was selected using purposive sampling. The tools used for this study included University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) PTSD-Revised Index for PTSD, Children Depression Inventort (CDI) for depression and Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI) for anxiety. Data was analyzed using SPSS-21 and was presented through tabulation. The findings of this research indicate that PTSD co-morbids depression and anxiety. The analysis conducted at the end of the study showed that ICBT significantly reduced depression and anxiety symptoms with P<0.003 for depression and P<0.001 for anxiety.