Attentional and Memory Bias among Sexual Assault Survivors with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Event Center BC

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma related disorder characterized by cognitive, re-experiencing, avoidance and numbing and physiological symptoms in response to exposure to a traumatic event [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)]. Studies have shown that negative cognitions and mood disturbance contribute to the development of PTSD and depression and can result in recall biases. Specifically, Vrana, Roodman, and Beckham (1995) used a modified Stoop colornaming task to identify words that were associated with combat in veterans with both trauma and PTSD. Results revealed that Vietnam Veterans demonstrated greater recall biases when presented words associated with combat experiences. Although studies have shown this recall bias in combat survivors with trauma and PTSD, little is known about recall biases in sexual assault trauma survivors. In the current study, we aimed to determine if sexual assault survivors with PTSD and depression would have a larger recall bias (i.e., explicit and implicit recall of Stroop words) toward sexual assault related words as compared to sexual assault survivors with no PTSD and controls (neither PTSD nor depression). All participants were assessed for level of PTSD and Depression with the Post-traumatic Check-list for DSM-5 (PCL-5) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale Revised (CESD-R) respectively and completed a Stroop color-naming task containing five categories of words: sexual assault-related, matched-neutral, positive, and negative. Data collection is ongoing. Preliminary analyses suggest that sexual assault survivors with PTSD and Depression demonstrated greater recall bias towards assault-related words than the other groups. Findings are discussed in terms of future research and clinical implications for treatment of trauma in general and specifically treatment of trauma with comorbid depression.