An experimental investigation of hypervigilance for threat in children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder

Background. The present study examined biases in visual attention for emotional material in children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and healthy controls. Methods. The participants carried out an attentional deployment task in which probe detection latency data were used t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological medicine 2001-04, Vol.31 (3), p.541-547
Main Authors: DALGLEISH, T., MORADI, A. R., TAGHAVI, M. R., NESHAT-DOOST, H. T., YULE, W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Affect - physiology
Age Factors
Anxiety
Anxiety disorders
Arousal - physiology
Attention - physiology
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child clinical studies
Cognition & reasoning
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Names
Neuropsychological Tests
Original Article
Post traumatic stress disorder
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Severity of Illness Index
Single-Blind Method
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology
Teenagers
Threats
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:Background. The present study examined biases in visual attention for emotional material in children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and healthy controls. Methods. The participants carried out an attentional deployment task in which probe detection latency data were used to determine the distribution of visual attention for threat-related and depression-related material. Results. The results showed that children and adolescents with PTSD, relative to controls, selectively allocated processing resources towards socially threatening stimuli and away from depression-related stimuli. This attentional avoidance of depression-related information in the PTSD participants declined with age. Conclusions. The results of the study are interpreted as a consolidation and extension of previous research on attentional bias and emotional disorder in younger participants.
ISSN:0033-2917
1469-8978
DOI:10.1017/S0033291701003567