TRAUMATIC INTRUSIONS AS WORSE CASE SCENARIOS

While some clinicians assume that traumatic intrusions are historicall y accurate revisualizations of traumatic incidents, others have sugges ted that these types of intrusions may represent a worse case scenario (i.e. exaggerated) version of the trauma. To explore this issue, a su rvey was conducted among undergraduate students (N = 189). Of the 69 r espondents who had been the victim of or witness to a relatively recen t trauma, 15 (22%) reported an exaggerated perception of the traumatic incident. Exaggerated intrusions were found to have more flashback qu alities and tended to have a higher frequency than 'realistic' intrusi ons. These findings are well in line with the idea that intrusions are not necessarily veridical copies of traumatic events. (C) 1998 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.