Citation

Rigoli F. Harv. Rev. Psychiatry 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, President and Fellows of Harvard College, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/HRP.0000000000000327

PMID

35148523

Abstract

In cognitive psychology, a recent perspective based on the notion of latent cause (LC) has offered new insight on how learning and memory work. Here I explore the implications of this novel perspective to understand posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The proposal is that, because of a propensity to interpret events as manifestations of multiple LCs (a propensity facilitated by experiencing traumas in childhood), PTSD patients form an LC associated with the trauma and that this LC is responsible for typical symptoms of the illness (specifically, intrusive symptoms and associated fear). Later, after the trauma, some patients develop a second LC, now associated with the presence of trauma-related cues combined with absence of danger. Development of the latter LC would interfere with extinction and explain why, for some patients, exposure to trauma-related cues (even when supported by interventions such as exposure protocols) fails to provide much improvement. This proposal has potential clinical implications, raising the possibility that some patients might benefit from exposure to mildly painful aspects of the trauma in conjunction with trauma-related cues.

Language: en