A Chinese Herbal Formula to Improve General Psychological Status in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial on Sichuan Earthquake Survivors

Table 2

Baseline characteristics, earthquake-affected PTSD patient treatment groups.

Variable	XTJYF; (N = 123)	Placebo; (N = 122)	P
Sex, n (%)
Female	88 (71.5)	86 (70.5)	0.89
Male	35 (28.5)	36 (29.5)
Age, mean (SD)	51.2 (15.0)	51.0 (16.0)	0.93
Marital status, n (%)
Married or living together	99 (80.5)	96 (78.7)	0.75
Others (unmarried, divorced, etc.)	24 (19.5)	26 (21.3)
Education, n (%)
Primary school or less	51 (41.5)	53 (43.4)	0.80
More than primary school	72 (58.5)	69 (56.6)
Occupation, n (%)
Farmer or unemployed	89 (72.4)	86 (70.5)	0.78
Other employment or retired	34 (27.6)	24 (19.5)
Clinical PTSD symptom data, n (%)
Uncontrollable recall of earthquake experiences	81 (65.9)	85 (69.7)	0.59
Repeated nightmares of earthquake	53 (43.1)	54 (44.3)	0.90
Repeated hallucinations	46 (37.4)	38 (31.1)	0.35
Heart racing, sweating, pallor when viewing earthquake ruins or victims	91 (74.0)	82 (67.2)	0.26
Poor sleep	87 (70.7)	86 (70.5)	1.00
Tense or easily agitated	97 (78.9)	92 (75.4)	0.55
Lack of concentration	60 (48.8)	50 (41.0)	0.25
Panic	52 (42.3)	45 (36.9)	0.43
Avoids recalling anything related to the earthquake	73 (59.3)	73 (59.8)	1.00
Avoids activities related to earthquake	56 (45.5)	55 (45.1)	1.00
Avoids contact with others, indifferent to relatives	54 (43.9)	45 (36.9)	0.30
Loss of interest and motivation	51 (41.5)	55 (45.1)	0.61
Selectively forgetful	67 (54.5)	62 (50.8)	0.61
Loss of hope for the future	34 (27.6)	39 (32.0)	0.49
Lost relatives in the earthquake, n (%)	7 (5.7)	11 (9.0)	0.34
Baseline outcome measures from SCL-90-R, mean (SD)
Global severity index	1.14 (0.61)	1.12 (0.60)	0.78
Positive symptom total index	48.4 (20.0)	48.8 (18.8)	0.87
Positive symptom distress index	2.14 (0.97)	2.00 (0.52)	0.18