Empirically Testing a Causal Risk Factor Candidate for Ptsd: The Experimental Manipulation of Anxiety Sensitivity Prior to Analog Trauma Exposure

• Other Authors: Boffa, Joseph W. (Joseph William) (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Clinical psychology
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2017SP_Boffa_fsu_0071N_13892

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disabling form of psychopathology characterized by negative alterations in cognitions and mood, re-experiencing, avoidance of trauma reminders, and hyperarousal symptoms resulting from exposure to a traumatic event. Identifying causal factors in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) is an important step toward developing preventative interventions for individuals at risk for trauma exposure. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), or the fear of negative physical, cognitive, or social consequences one associates with anxious arousal, is a vulnerability factor often associated with prospective and concurrent PTSS development. This study examined whether experimentally manipulating AS with a cognitive anxiety sensitivity treatment (CAST), prior to an analog trauma video, results in differential trajectories of PTSS development after one week. Undergraduates (N = 80) selected for Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 cognitive concerns subscale scores > 4 were randomly assigned to complete a single-session cognitive anxiety sensitivity training (CAST) or a control training, prior to viewing a ten-minute film of motor vehicle accidents. Participants completed measures of AS at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and one-week follow-up; PTSS was measured at day-one and week-one follow-up. Pre-post intervention AS changes were larger among CAST participants. However, condition was not associated with week-one PTSS. Furthermore, there was no evidence that pre-post intervention AS changes mediated the relationship between condition and one-week PTSS change. Future studies should seek to evaluate this relationship in longer protocols, among clinical samples, and with more potent index traumas. Still, the current proposal adds to the existing literature by demonstrating that AS interventions implement prior to index stressors sufficiently reduce AS, which in turn is related to concurrent changes in PTSS. === A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. === Spring Semester 2017. === March 23, 2017. === Anxiety Sensitivity, Prevention, PTSD, Risk Factors === Includes bibliographical references. === Norman B. Schmidt, Professor Directing Thesis; Jesse R. Cougle, Committee Member; Colleen M. Kelley, Committee Member.