A Prospective Test of the Association Between Hyperarousal and Emotional Numbing in Youth With a History of Traumatic Stress

Investigated the hypothesis that emotional numbing may develop as a result of hyperarousal using a prospective design. Forty-two children between the ages of 7 and 14 with a history of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were assessed with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale f...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology 2003-03, Vol.32 (1), p.166-171
Main Authors:	Weems, Carl F., Saltzman, Kasey M., Reiss, Allan L., Carrion, Victor G.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Affective Symptoms - etiology Affective Symptoms - psychology Arousal Child Children & youth Emotions Female Humans Male Post traumatic stress disorder Prospective Studies Psychiatric Status Rating Scales Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - complications Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology Tests
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Investigated the hypothesis that emotional numbing may develop as a result of hyperarousal using a prospective design. Forty-two children between the ages of 7 and 14 with a history of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were assessed with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for Children and Adolescents (CAPS-CA; Nader et al., 1996) and were reassessed 1 year later. Results indicated that hyperarousal symptoms were concurrently positively correlated with emotional numbing at both time points. Moreover, Time 1 hyperarousal symptoms were associated with emotional numbing at Time 2 and predicted Time 2 emotional numbing even when controlling for each of the other symptom clusters of PTSD at Time 1 as well as other concurrent (i.e., Time 2) PTSD symptoms. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of the findings for enhancing the understanding of PTSD symptoms in youth.
ISSN:	1537-4416 1537-4424