Yogyakarta, 8 September 2026 — An international collaborative study involving researcher from the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Riangga Novrianto, S.Psi., M.Psi., Psychologist, has found that specific post-traumatic symptoms, namely re-experiencing, or reliving traumatic experiences, and the dissociative symptom of depersonalization, significantly predict the severity of depression six months later.
The findings were published in the European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation in an article entitled “Post-traumatic and dissociative symptoms as significant predictors of depression: Results from an international follow-up survey study.” The study aimed to identify the specific symptom domains of complex PTSD, based on the ICD-11 criteria, and dissociative symptoms that most strongly influence the longer-term development of depression.
The study involved 293 women recruited internationally through mental health services. Some 63.1% of the respondents were from non-Western countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, while the remaining 36.9% lived in Western countries, including North America and the United Kingdom. Data were collected at two time points six months apart using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to measure depression, the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) to assess ICD-11 complex PTSD symptoms, and the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory (MDI) to assess dimensions of dissociation.
The study found that baseline symptoms of re-experiencing and depersonalization significantly predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms six months later. Meanwhile, an unexpected finding showed that baseline avoidance symptoms were negatively associated with depression severity at follow-up. The researchers suggested that this finding may reflect the short-term regulatory function of avoidance or a statistical effect in the analysis. Overall, the research model explained 52.7% of the variance in the long-term dynamics of depression.
These findings highlight the importance of identifying trauma-related and dissociative symptoms in efforts to prevent and address depression. The researchers also emphasized the need for further studies involving larger and more diverse samples to replicate these patterns and better understand the mechanisms linking trauma-related symptoms to the development of depression.
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