Open AccessChanges in temporal attention inhibition following prolonged exposure and sertraline in the treatment of PTSD.
Author(s) -
Aileen Echiverri-Cohen,
Lori A. Zoellner,
Robert Gallop,
Norah C. Feeny,
Jeffrey A. Jaeger,
Michele BedardGilligan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of consulting and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.582
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1939-2117
pISSN - 0022-006X
DOI - 10.1037/ccp0000080
Subject(s) - sertraline , serotonergic , neurochemical , psychology , inhibitory postsynaptic potential , extinction (optical mineralogy) , reuptake inhibitor , neuroscience , serotonin , anxiety , psychiatry , medicine , antidepressant , chemistry , mineralogy , receptor
Attentional inhibitory deficits expressed as difficulty ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the pursuit of goal-directed behavior may serve as a fundamental mechanism of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Evidence of inhibitory processes as central to extinction suggests that exposure-based treatments may act more directly on the inhibitory deficits implicated in PTSD, whereas, in facilitating serotonergic neurotransmission, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may be less direct and bring about general neurochemical changes in the fear circuitry. If these inhibitory deficits underlie PTSD, then inhibition should improve with successful treatment, with those treated with prolonged exposure (PE) potentially resulting in greater changes in inhibition than those treated with sertraline.