Optimal Dose of Early Intervention to Prevent PTSD

Inclusion Criteria:

• Presenting to the emergency department of Emory University School of Medicine/Grady Memorial Hospital for trauma in the past 72 hours
• Meets DSM-IV diagnostic criterion A in which both of the following are present: (i) The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (ii) The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror
• Speaks and understands spoken English
• Have a memory of what happened during the trauma
• Can see the assessment forms, hear instructions, and function at an emotional and intellectual level sufficient to allow accurate completion of all assessment instruments

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current or history of mania, schizophrenia, or other psychoses
• Current (past month) prominent suicidal ideation or recent (past 3 months) parasuicidal behavior or other self-injurious behavior, such as low lethality cutting
• Current (past month) substance dependence; people who meet criteria for current substance abuse but not dependence, or past dependence and have been in remission for at least 1 month are eligible
• Experienced a loss of consciousness for more than 5 minutes as a result of injuries sustained during the trauma
• Intoxicated, altered, or highly distressed to the degree that accurate completion of the study assessments or participation in study procedures is not possible
• Blood alcohol level above .08, determined by breathalyzer in the emergency department
• Not alert, oriented, and coherent
• In severe pain, active labor, or respiratory distress or hemodynamically compromised in any way