Attentional bias for trauma-related words: exaggerated emotional Stroop effect in Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves debilitating symptoms that can disrupt cognitive functioning. The emotional Stroop has been commonly used to examine the impact of PTSD on attentional control, but no published study has yet used it with Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans, and only one p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC psychiatry 2013-03, Vol.13 (1), p.86-86, Article 86
Main Authors: Ashley, Victoria, Honzel, Nikki, Larsen, Jary, Justus, Timothy, Swick, Diane
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Afghan Campaign 2001
Anxiety
Attention
Attentional bias
Bias
Check lists
Checklist
Cognition disorders
Cognitive ability
Depression
Depression, Mental
Emotions
Female
Habituation
Humans
Inventories
Iraq War, 2003-2011
Language
Male
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Military personnel
Names
Patient outcomes
Physiology
Post traumatic stress disorder
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychiatry
Psychological aspects
Risk factors
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology
Stroop Test
Threats
Trauma
Traumatic brain injury
United States
Veterans
Veterans - psychology
War
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Summary:Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves debilitating symptoms that can disrupt cognitive functioning. The emotional Stroop has been commonly used to examine the impact of PTSD on attentional control, but no published study has yet used it with Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans, and only one previous study has compared groups on habituation to trauma-related words. We administered the emotional Stroop, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the PTSD Checklist (PCL) to 30 veterans with PTSD, 30 military controls, and 30 civilian controls. Stroop word types included Combat, Matched-neutral, Neutral, Positive and Negative. Compared to controls, veterans with PTSD were disproportionately slower in responding to Combat words. They were also slower and less accurate overall, did not show interference on Negative or Positive words relative to Neutral, and showed a trend for delayed but successful habituation to Combat words. Higher PCL and BDI scores also correlated with larger interference effects. Because of its specificity in detecting attentional biases to trauma-related words, the emotional Stroop task may serve as a useful pre- and post task with intervention studies of PTSD patients.
ISSN:1471-244X
1471-244X
DOI:10.1186/1471-244X-13-86