Acute effects of trauma-focused research procedures on participant safety and distress
Abstract
The ethical conduct of research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires assessing
the risks to study participants. Some previous findings suggest that patients with
PTSD report higher distress compared to non-PTSD participants after trauma-focused
research. However, the impact of study participation on participant risk, such as
suicidal/homicidal ideation and increased desire to use drugs or alcohol, has not
been adequately investigated. Furthermore, systematic evaluation of distress using
pre- and post-study assessments, and the effects of study procedures involving exposure
to aversive stimuli, are lacking. Individuals with a history of PTSD (n=68) and trauma-exposed
non-PTSD controls (n=68) responded to five questions about risk and distress before
and after participating in research procedures including a PTSD diagnostic interview
and a behavioral task with aversive stimuli consisting of mild electrical shock. The
desire to use alcohol or drugs increased modestly with study participation among the
subgroup (n=48) of participants with current PTSD. Participation in these research
procedures was not associated with increased distress or participant risk, nor did
study participation interact with lifetime PTSD diagnosis. These results suggest some
increase in distress with active PTSD but a participant risk profile that supports
a favorable risk-benefit ratio for conducting research in individuals with PTSD. ©
2013.
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Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10979Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.psychres.2013.10.038Publication Info
Brown, Vanessa M; Strauss, Jennifer L; LaBar, Kevin S; Gold, Andrea L; McCarthy, Gregory;
& Morey, Rajendra A (2014). Acute effects of trauma-focused research procedures on participant safety and distress.
Psychiatry Research, 215(1). pp. 154-158. 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.10.038. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10979.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Kevin S. LaBar
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
My research focuses on understanding how emotional events modulate cognitive processes
in the human brain. We aim to identify brain regions that encode the emotional properties
of sensory stimuli, and to show how these regions interact with neural systems supporting
social cognition, executive control, and learning and memory. To achieve this goal,
we use a variety of cognitive neuroscience techniques in human subject populations.
These include psychophysiological monitoring, functional magnetic
Rajendra A. Morey
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Research in my lab is focused on brain changes associated with posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
We apply several advanced methods for understanding brain function including functional
MRI, structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and genetic effects.
Jennifer Leigh Strauss
Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
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