Event-related Potential in Trauma-affected Refugees

Background: Evidence of abnormalities in cognitive and information processing in post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD) has been accumulating over the years. By means of electroencephalography (EEG) this study sets out to... [ view full abstract ]

Background: Evidence of abnormalities in cognitive and information processing in post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD) has been accumulating over the years. By means of electroencephalography (EEG) this study sets out to investigate these neural substrates to PTSD among trauma-affected refugees living in the capital region of Denmark. Trauma-affected refugees are typically characterized by an extensive trauma history, likelihood of torture and rape, and often conflict-related to death of family members.
Avoidance often takes the form of social isolation, making patients susceptible to depression and cognitive understimulation. In our clinical experience, patients will often display hyperarousal to unpredictable social situations, while being under engaged in relation to routine activities. We would expect this relegation of resources to reflect in deficits in psychophysiological measures.
Methods and materials: The design is a cross-sectional study of 25 trauma-affected refugees with PTSD and 25 healthy control refugees matched on gender, age and country of origin. Study participants undergo an interview and a psychophysiological assessment. The diagnosis and symptom severity are assessed using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), a validated ‘golden standard’ structured interview, and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), a 16-item self-report rating scale. In the psychophysiological assessment
participants will be examined using the Copenhagen psychophysiological test battery (CPTB), which has been developed and validated in the Glostrup laboratory. The battery includes paradigms which assess prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex paradigm (PPI), P50 suppression, selective attention and mismatch negativity (MMN).
Results/Discussion: The collection of data will be completed in October 2016 and results will be presented at the conference.