| Summary: | Childhood trauma (CT) is associated with mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood, especially with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These disorders frequently co-occur, yet few PTSD comorbidity studies have focused on samples with a range of CT severity and none have included participants with adulthood-only trauma in the same study. We investigated SCID diagnoses of comorbid mood and anxiety disorders among 69 adult PTSD patients (M age = 37.94, SD=11.13; 53.6% female), with CT exposures (CTQ scores) ranging from absent to extreme. The CAPS and QIDS-SR measured PTSD and depression severity, respectively. Total CT exposure correlated with having at least one comorbid anxiety disorder diagnosis (r pb=.42, p<.001) and logistic regression indicated that CT exposure predicted comorbid anxiety disorder diagnosis after controlling for demographics, mood disorder, and PTSD severity. Significant correlations were also identified between particular CT subtypes and the presence of a comorbid anxiety disorder. Total CT exposure did not predict current or past mood disorder diagnosis or depression severity. These findings support a relationship between CT and the presence of additional anxiety disorders in adult patients with PTSD, and highlight the need for thorough diagnostic assessment and special treatment planning to address the full spectrum of psychopathology in adult PTSD patients with significant histories of CT.
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