PTSD symptoms are associated with visual retrieval performance in OEF/OIF/OND veterans.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with poorer performance on neuropsychological tests in veterans. However, prior studies have generally compared individuals with PTSD to control groups, often excluding individuals with moderate symptoms. The present study evaluated neuropsychological performance among OEF/OIF/OND veterans as a function of overall PTSD severity, while also exploring potential associations between cognitive performance and PTSD symptom clusters. Using a brief neuropsychological battery, clinical interviews, and self-report instruments, we evaluated neuropsychological and psychiatric functioning in 90 OEF/OIF/OND veterans. When controlling for the effects of premorbid intellectual functioning and combat exposure, higher PTSD severity predicted worse visual retrieval performance, but not attention, verbal retrieval, visual learning, or executive functioning performance. A trend was observed where higher PTSD symptoms predicted worse verbal learning performance. All PTSD symptom clusters were associated with visual retrieval performance within the full sample. Avoidance and numbing symptoms were associated with verbal learning in the full sample. Findings suggest that among OEF/OIF/OND veterans with a range of PTSD symptoms, the assessment of visual memory may have implications for clinical practice.

Affective and cognitive correlates of PTSD: Electrocortical processing of threat and perseverative errors on the WCST in combat-related PTSD.

PTSD is characterized by both affective and cognitive dysfunction. Affectively, PTSD is associated with both heightened emotional reactivity and disengagement. Cognitively, perseverative thinking is a core feature of the disorder. In order to assess the interactive effects of affective and cognitive correlates of PTSD symptoms, 47 OEF/OIF/OND veterans completed an emotional faces matching task while EEG (i.e., late positive potential; LPP) was recorded, and separately completed the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) to assess perseverative errors. There was no relationship between PTSD symptoms and either perseverative errors or EEG reactivity to faces. However, an interaction was found such that high perseverative errors on the WCST and a relatively enhanced LPP to angry faces was associated with greater PTSD symptoms, while low errors on the WCST and a relatively blunted LPP to angry faces also related to greater PTSD symptoms. These findings suggest that emotion-cognition interactions are important for understanding PTSD, and that distinct emotion-cognition constellations interact with symptoms.

Impact of alcohol use disorder comorbidity on defensive reactivity to errors in veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Converging lines of evidence suggest that individuals with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) may be characterized by heightened defensive reactivity, which serves to maintain drinking behaviors and anxiety/hyperarousal symptoms. However, it is important to note that very few studies have directly tested whether individuals with PTSD and AUD exhibit greater defensive reactivity compared with individuals with PTSD without AUD. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to test this emerging hypothesis by examining individual differences in error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related component that is larger among anxious individuals and is thought to reflect defensive reactivity to errors. Participants were 66 military veterans who completed a well-validated flanker task known to robustly elicit the ERN. Veterans were comprised of 3 groups: controls (i.e., no PTSD or AUD), PTSD-AUD (i.e., current PTSD but no AUD), and PTSD + AUD (i.e., current comorbid PTSD and AUD). Results indicated that individuals with PTSD and controls generally did not differ in ERN amplitude. However, among individuals with PTSD, those with comorbid AUD had significantly larger ERNs than those without AUD. These findings suggest that PTSD + AUD is a neurobiologically unique subtype of PTSD, and the comorbidity of AUD may enhance defensive reactivity to errors in individuals with PTSD. (PsycINFO Database Record