Citation

Price M, Legrand AC, Brier ZMF, Gratton J, Skalka C. Depress. Anxiety 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/da.22976

PMID

31730736

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The manner in which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops remains largely unknown. PTSD is comprised of 20 symptoms across 4 clusters. These clusters were hypothesized to reflect a failure of recovery model in which intrusive symptoms appear first. Intrusive symptoms led to avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, which resulted in sustained arousal. The sustained arousal ultimately led to dysphoria.

METHODS: This hypothesized symptom progression was evaluated during the acute posttrauma period (the first 30 days postevent). Participants (N = 80) reported their PTSD symptoms for 30 days via mobile devices. Using a short-term dynamic modeling framework, a temporal and contemporaneous model of PTSD symptoms was obtained.

RESULTS: In the temporal network, a fear-conditioning component was identified that supported the hypothesized set of relations among symptom clusters. The contemporaneous network was classified by two subnetworks. The first corresponded to a fear-conditioning model that included symptoms of intrusions and avoidance. The second included symptoms of dysphoria and arousal.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that, after a trauma, there may be a fear-conditioning process that involves intrusions, avoidance, and arousal symptoms. Dysphoric symptoms were also present but developed as a partially distinct component.

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

PTSD; stress; trauma