Citation

Engelhard IM, Olatunji BO, de Jong PJ. J. Anxiety Disord. 2011; 25(1): 58-63.

Affiliation

Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508TC Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.08.003

PMID

20800428

Abstract

Although the DSM-IV recognizes that events can traumatize by evoking horror, not just fear, the role of disgust in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has received little research attention. In a study of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, we examined whether reports of peritraumatic disgust and trait disgust vulnerability factors (disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity) predict PTSD-symptoms, independently of peritraumatic fear, neuroticism, and anxiety sensitivity. Participants (N=174) enrolled in this study before deployment, and were retested around 6 months (N=138; 79%) and, again, 15 months (N=107; 62%) after returning home. The results showed that (1) greater peritraumatic disgust and fear independently predicted PTSD-symptom severity at 6 months, (2) greater disgust propensity predicted more peritraumatic disgust, but not PTSD-symptom severity, and (3) disgust sensitivity moderated the relationship between peritraumatic disgust and PTSD-symptom severity. Implications of these findings for broadening the affective vulnerabilities that may contribute to PTSD will be discussed.

Language: en