Psychophysiological responses to an executive task in refugees with chronic PTSD and comorbid depression

Abstract

This study investigates the changes in physiological responses in immigrants/refugees with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and comorbid depression when exposed to an executive task. Method: Twenty-two individuals with PTSD following war exposure from their country of origin and 23 control subjects with similar experiences but without psychiatric diagnosis were recruited for this study. Participants were tested with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) as part of an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Cardiovascular activity and skin conductance were measured to the performance on the WCST. Results: Executive impairments were related to increase in PTSD-symptoms. Low level of skin conductance was related to executive problems, but analyses of the relations between subjective, cognitive, and physiological measurements were inconclusive. Conclusion: The results show that executive impairments in PTSD are related to chronic PTSD, to elevated post-traumatic symptoms, and to depression after trauma exposure. Our findings do not however, show much cross-system reactivity across the different psychophysical measures. The results contradict with the hypotheses of multi system stress response and generalized arousal which imply a strong correlation across the subjective, cognitive, and autonomic systems in PTSD.

Keywords:

• cognition
• executive functions
• immigrants/refugees
• heart rate variability
• Wisconsin Card Sorting Test