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Sensory filtering phenomenology in PTSD
Author(s) -
Stewart Lorraine P.,
White Patricia M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
depression and anxiety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.634
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6394
pISSN - 1091-4269
DOI - 10.1002/da.20255
Subject(s) - phenomenology (philosophy) , psychology , sensory system , cognitive psychology , philosophy , epistemology
Disrupted sensory filtering, or problems with suppressing irrelevant environmental sensory stimuli, has been reported in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the relationship of sensory filtering deficits to specific PTSD symptoms versus an association with general trauma exposure is unclear. These relationships were examined by administering self‐report measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, and sensory gating phenomenology to undergraduate participants with PTSD ( n =32), with trauma history but without PTSD ( n =144), and with minimal trauma history ( n =153). Subjects with PTSD reported greater filtering disruption than individuals in the trauma only and low trauma groups, who did not differ. Individuals endorsing reexperiencing and numbing symptoms, and females endorsing hypervigilance, reported disrupted sensory filtering phenomenology. These results suggest that impaired filtering differentiates between individuals with PTSD symptoms and asymptomatic individuals exposed to multiple traumas and low‐trauma controls. Depression and Anxiety 0:1–8, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.