Cognitive processing of trauma cues in rape victims with post-traumatic stress disorder

Rape victims with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (n =12), rape victims without PTSD (n =12), and nontraumatized control subjects (n =12) performed a computerized Stroop color-naming task in which they named the colors of high-threat words (e.g., RAPE), moderate-threat words (e.g., CRIME), positive words (e.g., LOYAL), and neutral words (e.g., TYPICAL). In contrast to rape victims without PTSD and to nontraumatized control subjects, those with PTSD were slower to color-name high-threat words than moderate-threat, positive, and neutral words. Rape victims without PTSD nevertheless exhibited greater Stroop interference for high-threat words than did nontraumatized subjects. Interference for high-threat words was correlated with scores on the Impact of Events Scale —Intrusion subscale, but not with scores on the Avoidance subscale. These findings suggest that interference for trauma cues may provide a nonintrospective index of intrusive cognitive activity.Preparation of this article was supported, in part, by grants from the Henry and Ramsey Pevsner Fund in Neuropsychology and Behavioral Medicine and the American Association of University Women — Aurora, Illinois, Chapter awarded to Karen Lynn Cassiday, and National Institute of Mental Health grant MH43809 awarded to Richard J. McNally.This study was part of the first author's doctoral dissertation, conducted under the supervision of the second author. It was conducted when the authors were at the Department of Psychology, University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School. A shorter version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, San Francisco, November, 1990.