RESUMO
Three groups of Vietnam combat veterans, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, n = 25), anxious (n = 7), and healthy (n = 18), completed a battery of psychometric tests. Measurement of psychophysiologic responses to imagery of individualized combat experiences followed the psychometrics. The PTSD Ss differed significantly from the healthy Ss on almost all measures but showed fewer differences from the anxious Ss. The typical PTSD S was characterized as anxious, depressed, prone to dissociation, and external in locus of control. Correlations with the physiologic responses supported the validity of psychometric scales specifically designed to measure PTSD but cast doubt on the interpretation of traditional measures of overreporting or dissimulation in this disorder.
Assuntos
Transtornos de Ansiedade/psicologia , Nível de Alerta , Distúrbios de Guerra/psicologia , Testes de Personalidade , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos/psicologia , Veteranos/psicologia , Adulto , Eletromiografia , Resposta Galvânica da Pele , Frequência Cardíaca , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , PsicometriaRESUMO
This study utilized psychophysiologic techniques to assess emotional arousal during imagery of psychologically traumatic experiences. All subjects were medication-free Vietnam combat veterans, classified on the basis of DSM-III-R criteria into groups with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, n = 18) and no mental disorder (control, n = 15), which did not differ in extent of combat or in the judged severity of the traumatic experiences reported. "Scripts" describing each subject's combat experiences as well as other experiences were read to them in the laboratory, and they were instructed to imagine the events the scripts portrayed, while heart rate, skin conductance, and frontalis electromyogram were recorded. The PTSD subjects' physiologic responses to their combat scripts were markedly higher than the controls'. The combined physiologic variables identified PTSD subjects with a specificity of 100% and a sensitivity of 61%. The results demonstrate exaggerated physiologic arousal during recollection of traumatic experiences in PTSD.
