TY  - JOUR
A1  - Iffland, Benjamin
A1  - Klein, Fabian
A1  - Rosner, Rita
A1  - Renneberg, Babette
A1  - Steil, Regina
A1  - Neuner, Frank
T1  - Cardiac reactions to emotional words in adolescents and young adults with PTSD after child abuse
T2  - Psychophysiology
N2  - Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with alterations in cardiac reactivity to threat cues. Meta‐analyses have summarized that adults with PTSD have increased heart rates in response to trauma‐related stimuli. However, the opposite effect (i.e., cardiac hyporeactivity) has recently been reported in subgroups of PTSD patients. In children and adolescents with PTSD, reports of cardiac alterations are rare and ambiguous. So far, most studies in adolescents and young adults are restricted to victims of accidents, even though PTSD is highly prevalent in victims of child maltreatment. The present study aimed at investigating cardiac reactions in adolescents and young adults with PTSD after child abuse. Cardiac responses to standardized emotional words were studied in 39 adolescent and young adult PTSD patients after childhood sexual and/or physical abuse as compared to 39 healthy control subjects (age range: 15–20 years). The experimental paradigm consisted of a passive reading task with neutral, positive, physically threatening, and socially threatening (swear) words. Results showed that cardiac reactions to negative stimuli, particularly physically threatening stimuli, were less pronounced in PTSD patients than in controls. Moreover, cardiac reactions in response to socially threatening words were less variable in the PTSD group. No differences between and within groups were present in reaction to neutral or positive stimuli. Findings suggest that a physiologically blunted subtype of PTSD may already manifest during adolescence and young adulthood. Moreover, the results of the present study emphasize the relevance of individual trauma history for physiological reactions.
KW  - childhood abuse
KW  - electrocardiography
KW  - heart rate
KW  - passive reading paradigm
KW  - posttraumatic stress disorder
KW  - psychophysiology
KW  - trauma
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/56392
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-563925
SN  - 1540-5958
VL  - 57
IS  - e13470
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Malden, Mass.
ER  -