Influence of Depression on State and Trait Anger in Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Anger is one of the most important symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and is associated with many of the adverse correlates of PTSD. Researchers have proposed theories to explain the relationship between anger and PTSD, but no study to date has examined the mediating role of depression. The purpose of this study was to explore the mediating effects of current major depression disorder (MDD), as well as PTSD numbing and dysphoria symptom clusters (King et al. 1998; Simms et al. 2002) on the relationship between PTSD and anger. There were 98 participants in the study, and all were male veterans with combat-related PTSD taking part in a clinical trial. Results indicated that MDD partially mediated the relationship between PTSD and state anger, while numbing and dysphoria clusters partially mediated the relationships between other PTSD symptom clusters and trait anger. Implications for the treatment of anger in veterans with PTSD are discussed.