RESUMEN
Intrusions and flashbacks are core features of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The frequency of these symptoms is usually assessed through retrospective questionnaires, which may be subject to recall bias of unknown magnitude. Electronic diaries that enable real-time assessment have been used to address recall biases in several psychiatric disorders. However, to our knowledge, this is the first study to apply this method to assess intrusions and flashbacks in PTSD related to childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Female patients with PTSD related to CSA (n = 28) were provided with electronic diaries for repeated real-time assessment of intrusions and flashbacks over the period of 1 week. At the end of this period, they were asked to retrospectively report how many such symptoms they recalled having experienced over the past week. The total number of symptoms reported in the electronic diaries (74.5 ± 62.0 intrusions and 24.4 ± 36.0 flashbacks for the week) was substantially higher than those reported in previous studies. Furthermore, electronic diaries revealed the occurrence of about 50% more intrusions and flashbacks than did the retrospective assessment (74.5 vs. 49.5 for intrusions, and 24.4 vs. 13.4 for flashbacks). Such high frequencies are not captured with existing assessment instruments and suggest a possible ceiling effect. Future research needs to clarify whether these high numbers are specific to highly symptomatic PTSD patients or might generalize to other populations of PTSD patients.
Asunto(s)
Concienciación , Abuso Sexual Infantil/diagnóstico , Abuso Sexual Infantil/psicología , Computadoras de Mano , Recuerdo Mental , Trastornos por Estrés Postraumático/diagnóstico , Trastornos por Estrés Postraumático/psicología , Encuestas y Cuestionarios , Adulto , Niño , Abuso Sexual Infantil/terapia , Terapia Cognitivo-Conductual , Femenino , Humanos , Terapia Implosiva , Psicometría/estadística & datos numéricos , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Estudios Retrospectivos , Programas Informáticos , Trastornos por Estrés Postraumático/terapiaRESUMEN
The present study investigated dream recall as well as nightmare frequency in families. Whereas a positive correlation for nightmare frequencies between children and mothers was found (but not for children and their fathers), the relationship for dream recall frequency was small and nonsignificant. Assuming that mothers are still the primary caregivers in the modern family, and, thus, might encourage or discourage children to talk about their dreams, the findings of the study support Cohen's 1973 hypothesis of a socialization effect on nightmare frequency and maybe a smaller effect on dream recall frequency.