Citation

Gramlich MA, Smolenski DJ, Norr AM, Rothbaum BO, Rizzo AA, Andrasik F, Fantelli E, Reger GM. Depress. Anxiety 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/da.23141

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This investigation involved an in-depth examination of psychophysiological responses during exposure to the trauma memory across 10 sessions among active duty soldiers with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treated by Prolonged Exposure (PE) or Virtual Reality Exposure (VRE). We compared psychophysiological changes, session-by-session, between VRE and traditional imaginal exposure.

METHODS: Heart rate (HR), galvanic skin response (GSR), and peripheral skin temperature were collected every 5 min during exposure sessions with 61 combat veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan and compared to the PTSD Checklist (PCL-C) and Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) outcomes using multilevel modeling.

RESULTS: Over the course of treatment, participants in the PE group had higher HR arousal compared to participants in the VRE group. With reference to GSR, in earlier sessions, participants demonstrated a within-session increase, whereas, in later sessions, participants showed a within-session habituation response. A significant interaction was found for GSR and treatment assignment for within-session change, within-person effect, predicting CAPS (d = 0.70) and PCL-C (d = 0.66) outcomes.

CONCLUSION: Overall, these findings suggest that exposure to traumatic memories activates arousal across sessions, with GSR being most associated with reductions in PTSD symptoms for participants in the PE group.

Language: en

Keywords

posttraumatic stress disorder; active duty; combat; Prolonged Exposure; psychophysiology; Virtual Reality Exposure