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Theory of mind performance in women with posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood abuse
Author(s) -
Nazarov A.,
Frewen P.,
Parlar M.,
Oremus C.,
MacQueen G.,
McKin M.,
Lanius R.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/acps.12142
Subject(s) - psychology , theory of mind , sexual abuse , dissociation (chemistry) , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , poison control , injury prevention , cognition , medicine , chemistry , environmental health
Objective Key questions remain unaddressed concerning the nature of interpersonal functioning in trauma survivors, including the ability to understand and interpret other people's thoughts and feelings. Here, we investigate theory of mind ( T o M ) performance of women with PTSD related to childhood abuse in comparison to healthy controls. Method Participants completed two To M tasks, the I nterpersonal P erception T ask‐15 ( IPT ‐15) and the R eading the M ind in the E yes T ask – R evised ( RMET ). Results Relative to controls, women with a history of childhood trauma had difficulty recognizing familial relationships depicted in the IPT ‐15 ( P = 0.005). No other category of the IPT ‐15 showed significant group differences. In addition, while healthy women displayed faster RMET reaction times to emotionally valenced mental states (positive: P = 0.003; negative: P = 0.016) compared with neutral mental states, the PTSD group showed similar reaction times across all valences. The presence of dissociative symptoms (e.g., disengagement, amnesia, identity dissociation) was strongly associated with hindered accuracy of complex mental state identification and altered perception of kinship interactions. Conclusion Women with PTSD stemming from childhood trauma show changes in T o M abilities particularly those often involved in the interpretation of family interactions. In addition, individuals with PTSD showed slower reaction times during the recognition of complex mental states from emotionally salient facial/eye expressions in comparison with healthy subjects.