Memory and attention in combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Vietnam combat veterans assigned diagnoses of PTSD were compared on measures of attention/concentration, new learning, and memory with Army National Guard enlistees who reported no unusual traumatic events or stress-related symptoms. Results showed that PTSD veterans performed more poorly than the comparison sample on a measure of verbal learning, exhibiting less proficient cumulative acquisition across repeated exposures, greater sensitivity to proactive interference, and more perseverative errors. Veterans with PTSD diagnoses also evidenced impairments in word fluency and visual attention/tracking abilities. These preliminary findings suggest that diagnoses of chronic PTSD in combat veterans are associated with cognitive performance deficits, when comparisons are made with military troops judged to be free of stress-related psychopathology. Results are consistent with self-reported complaints of concentration and memory impairments among PTSD-diagnosed clinical samples, thus highlighting the need for continued investigation of the neuropsychologlcal sequelae of prolonged stress exposure.