ATTENTION, AROUSAL, AND MEMORY IN POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER

Vietnam combat veterans with current posttraumatic stress disorder (PT SD), with other Axis-I disorders, or with no Axis-I disorders complete d a series of tasks designed to elucidate the psychophysiological para meters of information-processing in PTSD. These tasks included a modif ied Stroop procedure (MSP), a standard Stroop procedure, a recognition memory task, and a threat rating task. Physiological responses were r ecorded throughout the study. Our data supported several predictions d erived from information-processing models of PTSD. PTSD subjects exhib ited greater MSP interference to high threat words than both compariso n groups, and a liberal response bias reward recognizing military-rela ted words. PTSD symptoms and threat reactions contributed to MSP inter ference effects for high-threat words after controlling for medication s, depression, and baseline physiological activity.