Ilan Wald|Tomer Shechner|Shani Bitton|Yael Holoshitz|Dennis S. Charney|David Müller|Nathan A. Fox|Daniel S. Pine|Yair Bar?Haim
Attention bias away from threat during life threatening danger predicts PTSD symptoms at one-year follow-up
Tel Aviv University|Tel Aviv University|Tel Aviv University|Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai|Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai|Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai|National Institute of Mental Health|Tel Aviv University
recent studies find correlation attentional threat avoidance stress posttraumatic stress symptoms study assessed association longitudinally exposed unexposed individuals degree threat avoidance exposure expected predict levels posttraumatic stress symptoms 1 year laterthirtytwo participants recruited followed 12 months including 18 subjects exposed rocket attacks 14 nonexposed subjects 1year followup participants completed selfreports attention dotprobe task assessing threatrelated biasstate anxiety decreased followup exposed participants though posttraumatic stress disorder ptsd depression symptoms remained higher exposed nonexposed group attentional threat avoidance imminent danger exposed group changed threat attendance year later exposed nonexposed group exhibited similar threat bias patterns hypothesized exposed group stronger attentional threat avoidance stress exposure predicted higher levels ptsd symptoms 1 year laterattention bias away threat acute stress may relate risk ptsd suggests neurocognitive measures may index risk ptsd