Emotional memory and posttraumatic stress disorder: A preliminary neuropsychological study in female victims of domestic violence

Abstract

Objectives: The current study was designed to examine the features of emotional memory that are associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and to investigate whether emotional memory and neuropsychological function predict the severity of PTSD symptoms. Method: Forty-five domestic violence victims were recruited and separated into the PTSD and N-PTSD groups, and 31 healthy volunteers were recruited as the normal control group. All participants filled out self-report instruments and underwent neuropsychological testing as well as an unexpected memory task (emotional memory questionnaire, EMQ) after watching a film on domestic violence. The questionnaire evaluated the participants' memory of the central aspects of the film (EMQ-C) and the peripheral aspects of the film (EMQ-P). Results: The PTSD group scored lower on the EMQ-C, whereas there were no significant differences for the EMQ-P or neuropsychological measures among the three groups. Additionally, the Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), category fluency, Verbal Paired Associates and EMQ-C predicted the PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: Both the index of the emotional memory and the perseverative error of MCST are powerful predictors of the severity levels of PTSD symptoms.