The International Classification of Diseases (11th revision, ICD-11) will be finalized in 2015. With the revision of the currently used ICD-10, the WHO will probably introduce new diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In contrast to the DSM-5, ICD-11 will probably define complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) in addition to PTSD.
Matthias Knefel and Brigitte Lueger-Schuster recently did an evaluative study on the newly proposed ICD-11 diagnostic criteria in a sample of adult survivors of childhood institutional abuse. The study aimed to compare prevalences of PTSD for ICD-10 and ICD-11 diagnosis.
They found an overall decrease in prevalence of PTSD: While 52.8% of the sample presented the core symptoms when using ICD-10 diagnostic criteria, only 38.4% did so for ICD-11 criteria (17% PTSD and 21.4% CPTSD). Upon investigating ICD-11 prevalences further they discovered that the gender effects for PTSD were neutralized and shifted towards CPTSD. Overall CPTSD prevalence in women was 2.5 times higher.
In summary it can be said that the ICD-11 definition and diagnostic criteria for CPTSD should be investigated in future studies, especially with respect to the found gender effects.
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