اثر نشخوار فکری در مورد خاطرات مزاحم:آیا حالت پردازش مهم است؟

Background and objectives Excessive rumination following traumatic or highly distressing experiences has been proposed to be an important maintaining factor of posttraumatic stress symptoms. However, not all forms of repetitive thinking about a negative event appear to be dysfunctional. It has been suggested that the abstractness of thinking is critical for its symptom-maintaining effects. The present study tested this hypothesis using an experimental analogue design with participants who had experienced a recent negative life event. Methods After a short symptom provocation task, participants (N = 57) wrote about their negative experience in either an abstract-evaluative or a concrete-experiential way. Intrusive memories were assessed during the session and in the first 36 h after the session. Results In line with the expectations, participants in the abstract-evaluative condition showed less reduction of intrusive memories during the experimental session than those in the concrete-experiential condition, and showed a slower recovery in the 36 h following the session. Limitations An analogue design was used. Therefore, results need to be replicated with survivors of traumatic events following DSM-IV. Conclusions Taken together, the results support the idea that abstractness of thinking is responsible for the dysfunctional effects of rumination about a highly distressing or traumatic event.

Past research has identified a number of risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms in response to a traumatic event (for an overview see Ozer, Best, Lipsey, & Weiss, 2003). In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in additionally investigating processes that are involved in the maintenance of the disorder ( Schnurr et al., 2004 and Steil and Ehlers, 2000). This interest is based on the observation that although most trauma survivors initially experience acute stress symptoms in the immediate aftermath of the event, only a small percentage develops chronic PTSD ( McFarlane, 2000). In their cognitive model, Ehlers and Clark (2000) propose repeated and prolonged rumination related to a traumatic event to be one of the variables that are involved in the maintenance of posttraumatic stress symptoms (for similar views see Joseph et al., 1997 and Wells and Sembi, 2004). Trauma-related rumination has been defined as recurrent negative thinking about a trauma and/or its consequences ( Michael, Halligan, Clark, & Ehlers, 2007). Results of phenomenological studies show that rumination can be distinguished from other forms of intrusive cognitions in PTSD, such as re-experiencing symptoms (e.g., Evans et al., 2007 and Speckens et al., 2007).