Attentional and memory bias for emotional information in crime victims with acute posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

A combined emotional Stroop, implicit memory (tachistoscopic identification) and explicit memory (free recall) task with three types of words (trauma-related, positive, and neutral) and two exposure conditions (subliminal and supraliminal) was administered to 39 crime victims with acute posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 39 age- and sex-matched controls. PTSD subjects showed supraliminal Stroop interference for trauma-related words and a similar effect on positive words. A specific explicit memory bias was found for trauma-related words among the PTSD subjects, but no preattentive bias on the subliminally presented words, nor any implicit memory bias. Findings suggest that acute PTSD subjects have an attentional and memory bias for threat-related material. Methodological limitations of the study are reviewed, and it is proposed that further studies are needed in order to elucidate whether acute PTSD Ss display a preattentive and implicit memory bias for trauma-related material. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.