Fear conditioned responses and PTSD symptoms in children: Sex differences in fear‐related symptoms

Abstract

Fear conditioning studies in adults have found that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with heightened fear responses and impaired discrimination. The objective of the current study was to examine the association between PTSD symptoms and fear conditioned responses in children from a highly traumatized urban population. Children between 8 and 13 years old participated in a fear conditioning study in addition to providing information about their trauma history and PTSD symptoms. Results showed that females showed less discrimination between danger and safety signals during conditioning compared to age-matched males. In boys, intrusive symptoms were predictive of fear responses, even after controlling for trauma exposure. However, in girls, conditioned fear to the danger cue was predictive of self-blame and fear of repeated trauma. This study suggests there are early sex differences in the patterns of fear conditioning and that these sex differences may translate to differential risk for trauma-related psychopathology.

Maternal buffering of fear-potentiated startle in children and adolescents with trauma exposure

“…In the secondary analyses, we included this measure as a covariate. We also included sex as a covariate given that we previously found significant sex differences in FPS (Gamwell et al, 2015). …”

“…The participants were recruited as part of an ongoing longitudinal study of trauma exposure in children. A subset of data from this study has been published previously (Jovanovic et al, 2014; Gamwell et al, 2015); however, the current study only included individuals that had (1) complete startle data, (2) available information about maternal presence during the startle testing, and (3) data on maternal warmth. In order to be eligible for the study, child participants had to be between 8 and 13 years of age and willing to participate; exclusion criteria were a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders, bipolar or psychotic disorders, or cognitive disability.…”

Extinction learning in childhood anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder: implications for treatment

“…Additionally, youth with PTSD did not exhibit a differential conditioned SCR when compared to youth without PTSD [83]. In contrast, another study found PTSD symptom severity to have a small-to-moderate association with larger SCRs to the CS+ [82]. Furthermore, youth from a high trauma-exposure population and with high anxiety were found to exhibit greater FPS to the CS+ and CS- during conditioning, compared to youth from the same population who had low anxiety [81].…”

“…Furthermore, youth from a high trauma-exposure population and with high anxiety were found to exhibit greater FPS to the CS+ and CS- during conditioning, compared to youth from the same population who had low anxiety [81]. Gender [82] and age [81] were found to influence threat conditioning within trauma-exposed youth. Boys from a highly trauma-exposed population were found to exhibit greater differential conditioning, compared to girls [82], and younger children exhibited poorer discrimination between CS+ and CS-, compared to older youth [81].…”

“…Gender [82] and age [81] were found to influence threat conditioning within trauma-exposed youth. Boys from a highly trauma-exposed population were found to exhibit greater differential conditioning, compared to girls [82], and younger children exhibited poorer discrimination between CS+ and CS-, compared to older youth [81]. When examining the neurobiology of threat conditioning within this population, findings suggested that the amygdala and hippocampus volume were negatively associated with SCR and/or SR fear to the CS+ during early conditioning, but that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex thickness was positively associated with SR fear to the CS- [83].…”