Back to Journals » Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment » Volume 9

Predicting PTSD using the New York Risk Score with genotype data: potential clinical and research opportunities

Authors Boscarino JA , Kirchner HL , Hoffman SN, Erlich PM

Received 6 January 2013

Accepted for publication 4 March 2013

Published 15 April 2013 Volume 2013:9 Pages 517—527

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S42422

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 3



Joseph A Boscarino,1,2 H Lester Kirchner,3,4 Stuart N Hoffman,5 Porat M Erlich1,4

1Center for Health Research, Geisinger Clinic, Danville, 2Department of Psychiatry, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, 3Division of Medicine, Geisinger Clinic, Danville, 4Department of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, 5Department of Neurology, Geisinger Clinic, Danville, PA, USA

Background: We previously developed a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) screening instrument, ie, the New York PTSD Risk Score (NYPRS), that was effective in predicting PTSD. In the present study, we assessed a version of this risk score that also included genetic information.
Methods: Utilizing diagnostic testing methods, we hierarchically examined different prediction variables identified in previous NYPRS research, including genetic risk-allele information, to assess lifetime and current PTSD status among a population of trauma-exposed adults.
Results: We found that, in predicting lifetime PTSD, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the Primary Care PTSD Screen alone was 0.865. When we added psychosocial predictors from the original NYPRS to the model, including depression, sleep disturbance, and a measure of health care access, the AUC increased to 0.902, which was a significant improvement (P = 0.0021). When genetic information was added in the form of a count of PTSD risk alleles located within FKBP, COMT, CHRNA5, and CRHR1 genetic loci (coded 0–6), the AUC increased to 0.920, which was also a significant improvement (P = 0.0178). The results for current PTSD were similar. In the final model for current PTSD with the psychosocial risk factors included, genotype resulted in a prediction weight of 17 for each risk allele present, indicating that a person with six risk alleles or more would receive a PTSD risk score of 17 × 6 = 102, the highest risk score for any of the predictors studied.
Conclusion: Genetic information added to the NYPRS helped improve the accuracy of prediction results for a screening instrument that already had high AUC test results. This improvement was achieved by increasing PTSD prediction specificity. Further research validation is advised.

Keywords: post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological trauma, diagnostic screening, test development, genotype, single nucleotide polymorphism

Creative Commons License © 2013 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.