Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is known as a disorder with volatile mood swings and overexpression of emotions. However, PTSD is also associated with symptoms of emotional numbing, which involve reduced emotional reactivity. To address these contrasting symptoms, we employed a computational approach to investigate whether individuals with PTSD exhibit a faster transition between emotional states and whether the severity of emotional numbing symptoms influences this transition. One thousand forty-five trauma-exposed were assessed for PTSD and rated valenced images through an online platform. Using hierarchical Bayesian modeling, we fitted a five-parameter logistic regression model to the data. We compared the function slope between individuals with probable PTSD (pPTSD) and the control group. Additionally, we examined the association between the slope and the severity of emotional numbing. Our findings revealed that individuals with pPTSD exhibited a higher slope, indicating a faster transition between emotional states. Furthermore, emotional numbing significantly contributed to the slope, with greater severity of numbing associated with a higher slope. This rapid transition between neutral and negative emotional states may have a fundamental role in the symptomatology of PTSD. Moreover, these insights inform targeted therapeutic approaches, emphasizing emotion regulation and mindfulness to manage such abrupt emotional shifts.
Source: Biological Psychiatry
Institutions: Yale University, United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4396221415