Beyond trauma: a review of content and linguistic characteristics of nontrauma narratives in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Using narratives to reflect on experiences, emotions, and thoughts is associated with better health, enhanced mood, and improved symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Prior research examining narrative characteristics thought to reflect cognitive styles associated with PTSD has focused on trauma narratives, but the characteristics of nontrauma narratives in relation to PTSD are not fully understood. We reviewed the PTSD literature examining linguistic characteristics of nontrauma narratives, focusing on affective content, personal pronouns, and cognitive processing words.

Associations between PTSD and temporal discounting: The role of future thinking.

Background And Objectives: Despite documented alterations in future thinking in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), our understanding of how individuals with PTSD make future-oriented decisions is limited. We tested the hypothesis that increased discounting in association with PTSD reflects failure to spontaneously envision future rewarding situations.

Methods: Thirty-seven trauma exposed war-zone veterans completed a standard temporal discounting task as well as a temporal discounting task accompanied by episodic future thinking cues.

A Bifactor Evaluation of Self-Report and Clinician-Administered Measures of PTSD in Veterans.

The PTSD Checklist for (PCL-5) and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for (CAPS-5) are two of the most widely used and well-validated PTSD measures providing total and subscale scores that correspond with PTSD symptoms. However, there is little information about the utility of subscale scores above and beyond the total score for either measure. The current study compared the proposed four-factor model to a bifactor model across both measures using a sample of veterans ( = 1,240) presenting to a Veterans Affairs (VA) PTSD specialty clinic.

Future thinking in PTSD: Preliminary evidence for altered event construction.

Using a future event fluency task, the current study sought to examine future event construction in PTSD and to identify clinical profiles associated with altered event construction. Thirty-eight trauma exposed war-zone veterans with (n=25) and without (n=13) PTSD generated within one minute as many positive and negative future events as possible in the near and distant future. The PTSD group generated fewer specific, but not generic, events than the no-PTSD group, a difference that was amplified for positive events as a result of comorbid depression.

Imagining emotional future events in PTSD: clinical and neurocognitive correlates.

Emotional future thinking serves important functions related to goal pursuit and emotion regulation but has been scantly studied in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The current study sought to characterize emotional future thinking in PTSD and to identify clinical and neurocognitive profiles associated with potential alterations in the level of detail in narratives of imagined future events. Fifty-eight, trauma-exposed, war-zone veterans, who were classified into current PTSD, past PTSD, and no-PTSD groups, were asked to vividly imagine future events in response to positive and negative cue words occurring in the near and distant future.

Early predictors of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder symptom trajectories in U.S. Army soldiers deployed to the Iraq war zone.

The course of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms varies among veterans of war zones, but sources of variation in long-term symptom course remain poorly understood. Modeling of symptom growth trajectories facilitates the understanding of predictors of individual outcomes over time. Although growth mixture modeling (GMM) has been applied to military populations, few studies have incorporated both predeployment and follow-up measurements over an extended time.

Associations of Warzone Veteran and Intimate Partner PTSD Symptoms with Child Depression, Anxiety, Hyperactivity, and Conduct Problems.

Warzone deployment increases risk for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS), including among service members who have children. Parental PTSS are associated with child depression, anxiety, hyperactivity, and conduct problems, yet few studies of child behavioral health outcomes in military populations have accounted for PTSS in both warzone veterans and their partners. Fewer still incorporate non-clinically-recruited samples of nationally dispersed warzone veterans and their families.

Neurocognitive Performance Predicts Future Partner Violence Among U.S. Iraq-and Afghanistan-deployed Army Soldiers and Veterans.

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) constitutes a major U.S. national health concern and disproportionately affects military families.

A cohort study of neuropsychological functioning in spouses of U.S. Gulf War veterans.

Aims: Veterans of the 1991 Gulf War reported symptoms in their spouses that mirrored veterans' symptoms following their return from the war, including problems with attention and memory. Neuropsychological functioning in these spouses has not been examined with objective tests. This study sought to determine if these spouses exhibited deficits in neuropsychological functioning.

Patterning of individual variability in neurocognitive health among South African women exposed to childhood maltreatment.

There are individual differences in health outcomes following exposure to childhood maltreatment, yet constant individual variance is often assumed in analyses. Among 286 Black, South African women, the association between childhood maltreatment and neurocognitive health, defined here as neurocognitive performance (NP), was first estimated assuming constant variance. Then, without assuming constant variance, we applied Goldstein's method (Encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science, Wiley, 2005) to model "complex level-1 variation" in NP as a function of childhood maltreatment.

Associations Among Increases in Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Neurocognitive Performance, and Long-Term Functional Outcomes in U.S. Iraq War Veterans.

Cross-sectional research suggests that posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) among war zone veterans are associated with functional impairment and poor quality of life. Less is known about the long-term functional repercussions of PTSS. This study of Iraq War veterans examined the associations between increases in PTSS and long-term functional outcomes, including the potential contributions of neurocognitive decrements.

Associations of warzone veteran mental health with partner mental health and family functioning: Family Foundations Study.

Introduction: Warzone participation is associated with increased risk of stress-related psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Prior research suggests that the mental health of spouses of warzone veterans (WZVs) is linked to that of their partners. Additionally, PTSD among WZVs has been associated with marital dysfunction.

Factors Influencing Family Environment Reporting Concordance Among U.S. War Zone Veterans and Their Partners.

A key challenge in the assessment of family variables is the discrepancies that arise between reports. Although prior research has observed levels of interpartner agreement on the family environment, no studies have investigated factors that may influence agreement. In this study, war zone veterans (WZVs) and their partners ( = 207 couples) completed assessments of the family environment.

The 20-year course of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among veterans.

Although numerous longitudinal studies have examined heterogeneity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom course, the long-term course of the disorder remains poorly understood. This study sought to understand and predict long-term PTSD symptom course among a nationwide sample of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom veterans enrolled in Veterans Health Administration services. We assessed PTSD symptoms at 4 time points over approximately 4.

Long-term negative emotional outcomes of warzone TBI.

Objective: Many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although prior work has examined associations between TBI and development of psychiatric syndromes, less is known about associations between TBI and component emotions constituting these syndromes, especially in the long term. The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term emotional consequences of deployment-related TBI.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and neurocognition: A bidirectional relationship?

There are well-known associations between PTSD and neurocognition, however, the direction of causality between the two is not well-understood. Neurocognition may alter risk of the development and maintenance of PTSD. Conversely, PTSD may pose risk to neurocognitive integrity.

Associations Between Trauma-Related Rumination and Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress and Depression in Treatment-Seeking Female Veterans.

Trauma-related rumination is a cognitive style characterized by repetitive negative thinking about the causes, consequences, and implications of a traumatic experience. Frequent trauma-related rumination has been linked to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in civilian samples but has yet to be examined among military veterans. This study extended previous research by examining trauma-related rumination in female veterans who presented to a Veterans Affairs women's trauma recovery clinic (N = 91).

Mental health in spouses of U.S. Gulf War veterans.

Veterans' spouses are at risk for mental distress and substance use. We examined long term psychological functioning in spouses from a national cohort of 1991 Gulf War era veterans. From clinical interviews, spouses of deployed veterans (n = 488) did not have a greater prevalence of post-war mental disorders compared to spouses of non-deployed veterans (n = 536); however, in couples that were living together since the war, there was an increased risk of anxiety disorders or any one disorder.

Generalizability of demographically corrected Zambian neuropsychological norms to South African women.

Demographically corrected norms typically account for the effects of age, education, and in some cases, sex and other factors (e.g. race/ethnicity).

Neurocognitive and Information Processing Biases in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Purpose Of Review: We review recent research addressing neurocognitive and information processing abnormalities in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including studies informing direction of causality. We additionally consider neurocognition in the context of co-morbid mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychosocial treatments for PTSD.

Recent Findings: Learning, memory, attention, inhibitory functions, and information processing biases frequently accompany PTSD, reflecting potential bi-directional relationships with PTSD.

Associations of Stress Exposures and Social Support With Long-Term Mental Health Outcomes Among U.S. Iraq War Veterans.

The long-term mental health effects of war-zone deployment in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on military personnel are a significant public health concern. Using data collected prospectively at three distinct assessments during 2003-2014 as part of the Neurocognition Deployment Health Study and VA Cooperative Studies Program Study #566, we explored how stress exposures prior, during, and after return from deployment influence the long-term mental health outcomes of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety disorders, and problem drinking. Longer-term mental health outcomes were assessed in 375 service members and military veterans an average of 7.

Prospective Examination of Early Associations of Iraq War Zone Deployment, Combat Severity, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder with New Incident Medical Diagnoses.

War zone deployment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been associated with morbidity and mortality decades later. Less is known about the associations between these variables and the early emergence of medical disorders in war zone veterans. This prospective study of 862 U.

Prospective Memory in Depression: Review of an Emerging Field.

Depressive disorders have been linked to a variety of neuropsychological deficits, including in the areas of processing speed, memory, and executive functioning. These neurocognitive disturbances may contribute to the impairments in daily functioning often experienced by those suffering with depression. Prospective memory (PM), which refers to remembering to execute a previously formed intention at some point in the future, has been shown to play a critical role in daily functioning and may be particularly relevant in the context of depression.