Emotion dysregulation is associated with increased prospective risk for chronic PTSD development

Publication date: Available online 14 December 2019Source: Journal of Psychiatric ResearchAuthor(s): Ioana Pencea, Adam P. Munoz, Jessica L. Maples-Keller, Devika Fiorillo, Katharina Schultebraucks, Isaac Galatzer-Levy, Barbara O. Rothbaum, Kerry J. Ressler, Jennifer S. Stevens, Vasiliki Michopoulos, Abigail PowersAbstractWhile emotion dysregulation is associated with many psychological disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it remains uncertain whether pre-existing emotion dysregulation increases individual risk for prospectively developing PTSD in the aftermath of trauma exposure. Thus, the objective of the current study was to determine whether emotion dysregulation could prospectively predict the development of chronic PTSD symptoms following a traumatic event above and beyond other known associated factors, including depressive symptoms, baseline PTSD symptoms, total traumas experienced, and exposure to interpersonal trauma. Participants (N = 135) were recruited from the emergency department (ED) at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and follow-up assessments were conducted at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-months following trauma exposure. Latent Growth Mixture Modeling was used to identify PTSD symptom trajectories based on symptoms assessed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months; three trajectories emerged: “chronic”, “recovery”, and “resilient”. For the present study, probability of chronic PTSD symptoms was used as the outcome variable of interest. Linear...
Source: Journal of Psychiatric Research - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research