Psychometric profile of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxious, and healthy Vietnam veterans: correlations with psychophysiologic responses.

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.

Psychophysiologic responses to combat imagery of Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder versus other anxiety disorders.

We used psychophysiologic techniques to assess responses to imagery of psychologically stressful past experiences in medication-free Vietnam combat veterans classified, on the basis of DSM-III-R criteria into posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; n = 7) or non-PTSD anxiety disorder (anxious; n = 7) groups. Scripts describing each individual's combat experiences were recorded and played back in the laboratory. Ss were instructed to imagine the events the scripts portrayed while heart rate, skin conductance, and frontalis electromyogram were recorded. PTSD Ss' physiologic responses were higher than those of anxious Ss. A discriminant function derived from a previous study of PTSD and mentally healthy combat veterans identified 5 of the 7 current PTSD Ss as physiologic responders and all 7 of the anxious Ss as nonresponders. Results of this study replicate and extend results of the previous study and support the validity of PTSD as a separate diagnostic entity.

Psychophysiologic assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder imagery in Vietnam combat veterans.

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.