Neuropsychological findings in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

Full Abstract

Previous research investigating whether combat-related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is associated with impaired neuropsychological functioning has yielded inconsistent findings. The present study addressed many methodological limitations of previous research. Neuropsychological measures of intellectual ability, learning, memory, attention, visuospatial ability, executive functioning, language, and psychomotor speed were compared in four groups of early middle-aged community dwelling veterans. The four demographically comparable groups were:
(a) those with current PTSD symptoms (n=80); (b) those with a prior history of PTSD but not currently experiencing active PTSD symptoms (n=80); (c) a non-PTSD psychiatrically matched control group (n=80); and (d) a normal control group (n=80). Results indicated that the four groups did not statistically differ on the neuropsychological measures and that veterans with PTSD perform similarly to demographically matched controls. Results further suggested that the cognitive difficulties previously linked to PTSD may actually have been secondary to preexisting individual differences or other clinical conditions coexisting with PTSD.

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Author information

Author/s: Crowell, Timothy A (TA); Kieffer, Kevin M (KM); Siders, Craig A (CA); Vanderploeg, Rodney D (RD);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33613, USA. TCrowell(-atsign-)hsc.usf.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: The Clinical neuropsychologist (Clin Neuropsychol), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 16 (issue 3) : pp 310-21

Dates: Created 2003/02/27; Completed 2003/05/20; Revised 2007/06/01;

PMID: 12607144, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Arousal
Attention
Case-Control Studies
Combat Disorders - physiopathology; psychology
Humans
Intelligence
Learning
MMPI - statistics & numerical data

Male
Memory
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychomotor Performance
Random Allocation
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - physiopathology; psychology
United States
Veterans - psychology

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