TY - JOUR
T1 - Behavioral inhibition and PTSD symptoms in veterans
AU - Myers, Catherine E.
AU - VanMeenen, Kirsten M.
AU - Servatius, Richard J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by a VISN 3 Seed Grant with additional support from the SMBI , by VA Medical Research Fund s, and by the NSF/NIH Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) Program and by NIAAA ( 5R01 AA018737 ). For assistance with building and maintaining equipment, the authors wish to thank Michael Bergen; for assistance with data collection, the authors wish to thank Silvio Lavrador.
PY - 2012/4/30
Y1 - 2012/4/30
N2 - Behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperamental bias to respond to novel stimuli with avoidance behaviors, is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is unclear whether BI accounts for additional variance in PTSD symptom severity beyond that accounted for by general anxiety. Here, 109 veterans (mean age 50.4. years, 9.2% female) provided self-assessment of PTSD symptoms, state and trait anxiety, combat exposure, and current (adult) and retrospective (childhood) BI. Adult BI was correlated with anxiety and PTSD symptom severity, especially cluster C (avoidance) symptoms, but not with combat exposure. A regression model including adult BI, state and trait anxiety, and combat exposure was able to correctly classify over 80% of participants according to presence or absence of severe PTSD symptoms. Because avoidance behaviors are a core component of PTSD, self-assessments of BI may be an important tool in understanding PTSD and potentially assessing vulnerability to the disorder.
AB - Behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperamental bias to respond to novel stimuli with avoidance behaviors, is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is unclear whether BI accounts for additional variance in PTSD symptom severity beyond that accounted for by general anxiety. Here, 109 veterans (mean age 50.4. years, 9.2% female) provided self-assessment of PTSD symptoms, state and trait anxiety, combat exposure, and current (adult) and retrospective (childhood) BI. Adult BI was correlated with anxiety and PTSD symptom severity, especially cluster C (avoidance) symptoms, but not with combat exposure. A regression model including adult BI, state and trait anxiety, and combat exposure was able to correctly classify over 80% of participants according to presence or absence of severe PTSD symptoms. Because avoidance behaviors are a core component of PTSD, self-assessments of BI may be an important tool in understanding PTSD and potentially assessing vulnerability to the disorder.
KW - Anxiety
KW - Avoidance
KW - Behavioral inhibition
KW - Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
KW - Veterans
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U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.11.015
DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.11.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 22397911
AN - SCOPUS:84861460030
SN - 0165-1781
VL - 196
SP - 271
EP - 276
JO - Psychiatry Research
JF - Psychiatry Research
IS - 2-3
ER -