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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2013

Open Access 01-12-2013 | Research article

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

Authors: Victoria Ashley, Nikki Honzel, Jary Larsen, Timothy Justus, Diane Swick

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

Background

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.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusions

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.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Attentional bias for trauma-related words: exaggerated emotional Stroop effect in Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with PTSD
Authors
Victoria Ashley
Nikki Honzel
Jary Larsen
Timothy Justus
Diane Swick
Publication date
01-12-2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2013
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-13-86

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