An event-related brain potential investigation of PTSD and PTSD symptoms in abused children |
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Authors: | W Brian McPherson Joseph E O Newton Peggy Ackerman D Michael Oglesby Roscoe A Dykman |
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Institution: | (1) Center for Applied Research and Evaluation, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas;(2) Dept. of Pediatrics, Slot 512-26, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, 800 Marshall St., 72202 Little Rock, AR |
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Abstract: | We tested 186 children ranging in age from 6 years, 10 months to 13 years, 7 months; 174 suffered either physical and/or sexual
abuse, and 12 were nonabused children. Abused subjects were grouped in four different ways. The primary grouping was based
on whether subjects satisfied the DSM III-R criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Secondary groupings were based
upon the three symptom clusters used to make the PTSD diagnosis (arousal, avaidance, and reexperiencing). In each of these
groupings three separate subgroups were formed with approximately 25 percent in the high and low symptom count subgroups and
the remaining 50 percent in the middle symptom count subgroup.
Subjects listened to four different intensity levels (65, 80, 95, and 102 dB) of a 1 KHz tone, pseudo-randomly ordered, while
event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Two separate blocks were used, one with short intervals (4±1 sec) between
tones and the other with longer intervals (17±2 sec). PTSD subjects presented a greater P2-N2 ERP intensity gradient (i.e.,
a larger increase in the P2-N2 ERP component as tone intensity increased) than did abused subjects without PTSD. Abused subjects
with the highest number of reexperiencing symptoms showed a similar P2-N2 augmenting effect when compared to those with the
lowest number of reexperiencing symptoms. Subjects with the highest number of arousal symptoms showed a shallower intensity
gradient for the N1-P2 ERP component than did those with fewer arousal symptoms. The results are discussed in relation to
previous results reported on adults with PTSD and in terms of CNS processing of stimulus intensity information. |
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