Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases, 11th version (ICD-11), has proposed a trauma-related diagnosis of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) separate and distinct from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Objective: To determine whether the symptoms endorsed by individuals who had experienced childhood institutional abuse form classes that are consistent with diagnostic criteria for ICD-11 CPTSD as distinct from PTSD.
Methods: A latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted on 229 adult survivors of institutional abuse using the Brief Symptom Inventory and the PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version to assess current psychopathological symptoms.
Results: The LPA revealed four classes of individuals: (1) a class with elevated symptoms of CPTSD (PTSD symptoms and disturbances in self-organization); (2) a class with elevated symptoms of PTSD and low disturbances in self-organization; (3) a class with elevated disturbances in self-organization symptoms and some elevated PTSD symptoms; and (4) a class with low symptoms.
Conclusions: The results support the existence of a distinct group in our sample, that could be described by the proposed diagnostic category termed CPTSD more precisely than by normal PTSD. In addition, there seems to be a group of persons that do not fulfill the criteria for a trauma-related disorder but yet suffer from psychopathological symptoms.
Keywords: Complex PTSD; ICD-11; WHO; childhood abuse; institutional abuse; latent profile analysis; posttraumatic stress disorder.