Cognitive processing in post-traumatic stress disorder

Recent research has suggested an abnormal attentional bias to threat in anxiety disorders. We have assessed the processing of thoughts of trauma, panic attacks, general fear and positive affect in a cohort of 15 war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and an age- and sex-matched normal control group. Subjects with PTSD showed delayed processing of self-referential sentences when the themes of the sentences were traumatic experiences or positive affect, compared with controls. However, they were more efficient than control subjects in the processing of sentences describing situations of panic attacks and general fear. It would therefore appear that in patients with PTSD, cognitive processing is hindered by personally relevant themes of past traumatic experiences, whereas it may be facilitated by information related to general threat or internal body sensations of panic.