PTSD Symptoms Mediate Academic Stress and Drinking to Cope in College Students.

Heightened perceptions of academic stress may increase college alcohol use behaviors, namely problem drinking and drinking to cope. Leading from prior research, the current study examined posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms as a mediator between academic stress and alcohol use behaviors. Undergraduate participants (N=200) completed an online survey battery. Results indicated that posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms mediated the relationship between academic stress and drinking to cope. Findings maintained after excluding the small portion of the sample without prior trauma. Results suggest that early trauma exposure may increase stress sensitivity, which is associated with elevated nontraumatic academic stress and stress-related symptoms. An increase in stress symptoms likely promotes drinking as a method of coping. Information on the role of trauma and stress may be incorporated into alcohol intervention programs.

Decreased somatosensory activity to non-threatening touch in combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe psychiatric disorder prevalent in combat veterans. Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that patients with PTSD exhibit abnormal responses to non-threatening visual and auditory stimuli, but have not examined somatosensory processing. Thirty male combat veterans, 16 with PTSD and 14 without, completed a tactile stimulation task during a 306-sensor magnetoencephalography (MEG) recording. Significant oscillatory neural responses were imaged using a beamforming approach. Participants also completed clinical assessments of PTSD, combat exposure, and depression. We found that veterans with PTSD exhibited significantly reduced activity during early (0-125 ms) tactile processing compared with combat controls. Specifically, veterans with PTSD had weaker activity in the left postcentral gyrus, left superior parietal area, and right prefrontal cortex in response to nonthreatening tactile stimulation relative to veterans without PTSD. The magnitude of activity in these brain regions was inversely correlated with symptom severity, indicating that those with the most severe PTSD had the most abnormal neural responses. Our findings are consistent with a resource allocation view of perceptual processing in PTSD, which directs attention away from nonthreatening sensory information.

Child abuse exposure, emotion regulation, and drinking refusal self-efficacy: an analysis of problem drinking in college students.

BACKGROUND: Problem drinking in college is a longstanding problem with potentially severe consequences. More recently, problem drinking has been linked to emotion regulation difficulties. However, these results are mixed and emphasize the need to examine moderating variables that may strengthen the problem drinking/emotion regulation relationship. Two such variables are child/adolescent sexual abuse (CASA) and drinking refusal self-efficacy (DRSE). OBJECTIVES: The current study hypothesized that the relations between emotion regulation difficulties and problem drinking would be most salient for college students with increased CASA exposure and decreased DRSE. Secondary analyses examined the hypothesis taking into consideration cumulative child/adolescent trauma exposure. METHODS: Undergraduate students (n = 200) completed a large survey battery for course credit. RESULTS: Three-way interactions across the CASA and cumulative trauma models were significant and in a similar direction. RESULTS indicated that for students without trauma exposure, problem drinking was the greatest for those with decreased DRSE and increased emotion regulation difficulties. As trauma exposure increased, problem drinking was the greatest for those with decreased DRSE and decreased emotion regulation difficulties (or superior perceived regulatory abilities). CONCLUSION: Discussion highlights the importance of considering DRSE and the possibility of reduced insight in trauma-exposed students, who may perceive alcohol use as an adaptive regulatory strategy.