Psychological symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in patients with amputated limbs in light of some Demographic variables in Makkah and Jeddah

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of psychological symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder among a sample of a limb amputated patients and the differences in psychological symptoms according to the sex, age, nationality, place of residence, educational level, marital status, date of amputation, the amputated part, and the reason for the amputation. The researcher developed a scale of psychological symptoms for post-traumatic stress disorder. The sample consists of (420) patients. Results indicated that the prevalence and the level of psychological symptoms of PTSD were moderate. There were also statistically significant gender differences on the phantom symptom's subscale of the psychological symptoms of PTSD in favor of males, while there were no statistically significant differences in the psychological symptoms of PTSD based on age except for the phantom symptoms. There was a statistically significant difference in favor for 40 - to less than 50 years. There were also statistically significant differences in the phantom symptoms and the total score based on nationality, favoring Saudi nationality. Moreover, there were statistically significant differences in all psychological symptom's subscales due to participants' residence place in favor of Makkah, except for the fictitious symptoms. On the other hand, there were no statistically significant differences in the psychological symptoms based on the educational level and the marital status. However, there were statistically significant differences in the psychological symptoms related to the amputation date favoring the recent amputation history. Finally, the study found statistically significant differences in the phantom symptom's subscale based on the amputated limb in favor of the right or left foot and the right or left hand. There were also statistically significant differences in all psychological symptoms subscales except emotional symptoms based on the cause of the amputation in favor of the accident and diabetes causes.