Association of Predeployment Gaze Bias for Emotion Stimuli With Later Symptoms of PTSD and Depression in Soldiers Deployed in Iraq

Postdeployment Threat-Related Attention Bias Interacts With Combat Exposure to Account for PTSD and Anxiety Symptoms in Soldiers

“…Results of the present study demonstrate that soldiers who reported more combat exposures and show attentional threat avoidance (i.e., slower responses to threat trials relative to neutral trials) also reported higher levels of PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder symptoms. Our findings replicate the pattern of results seen by both Beevers et al [14] and Wald et al, [15] but involved different tasks (dot-probe vs. eye-gaze tracking) and different stimuli (faces vs. words used as stimuli), respectively. In addition, the results of the present study are unique in that they are the first demonstration of the interaction between combat exposure, attentional threat avoidance, and behavioral health symptoms in soldiers during the postdeployment period.…”

“…Typical attention bias difference score models are also presented for comparison. Based on previous studies, [14][15][16]30] one-tailed tests were conducted for combat exposure, the three-way interaction and the alternative difference score analysis.…”

“…In the present study, we extend previous work to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms related to military mental health during the key postdeployment period [16] and examined whether the associations among attentional threat avoidance (as previously measured predeployment by Beevers et al [14] and Wald et al [15] ), combat exposure, and PTSD and anxiety symptoms are also evident 4 months postdeployment. Based on Beevers et al [14] and Wald et al [15] , we expected soldiers who experienced more combat events and showed attentional threat avoidance to report higher levels of PTSD and generalized anxiety symptoms.…”

“…[12,13] Two recent studies suggest that the assessment of threat-related attention bias may be useful in identifying soldiers at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety symptoms. [14,15] Beevers et al [14] found that predeployment eye-gaze bias moderated the association between war zone stress exposure and PTSD symptoms. Specifically, soldiers who showed shorter mean fixation time to threat faces prior to deployment and were later exposed to war zone stress reported higher PTSD symptoms during deployment.…”

Seated movement indexes emotion and its regulation in posttraumatic stress disorder

“…As noted in the companion paper, the absence of significant differences in instructed emotion regulation between PTSD patients and controls may be attributable to the fact that the former were engaged in an intensive treatment While the observed tendency of PTSD participants to lean towards aversive photographs appears broadly inconsistent with the avoidance symptoms codified in DSM-5, it is broadly consistent with studies quantifying gaze in PTSD. These studies have typically found evidence of increased attention to aversive and traumarelevant images in PTSD samples (Armstrong, Bilsky, Zhao, & Olatunji, 2013;Beevers, Lee, Wells, Ellis, & Telch, 2011;Bryant, Harvey, Gordon, & Barry, 1995;Felmingham, Rennie, Manor, & Bryant, 2011;Kimble, Fleming, Bandy, Kim, & Zambetti, 2010;Thomas, Goegan, Newman, Arndt, & Sears, 2013). Future studies could combine postural and eye tracking indices to examine their interrelationship.…”